First flight of evacuees from NWT wildfires arrives in Winnipeg

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This article was published 19/08/2023 (784 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The first flight carrying evacuees fleeing wildfires in Northern Canada arrived in Winnipeg Saturday.

“We saw our first flight with evacuees from the Northwest Territories land at Winnipeg Richardson International Airport early this morning — essentially overnight,” Michel Rosset, the airport’s manager of communications, said by phone.

“We are expecting more to come throughout the day, we just don’t know any information yet about specific times.”

Fifteen people were aboard the flight and the province is prepared to welcome as many as 3,000 others, a provincial spokesperson said.

More than 19,000 people left Yellowknife, the territory’s capital, over a 48-hour period, marking one of the largest firefighting mobilizations in region’s history, the Canadian Press reported Friday.

Territorial officials said roughly 15,000 residents fled in vehicles, while another 3,800 left by air.

The Manitoba government is working to accommodate evacuees with support from the airport and Canadian Red Cross, Rosset said.

“It’s very fluid,” he said. “We’re on the ready and we’re prepared to help out in any way we can. We have teams on standby.”

Winnipeg opening ‘doors and hearts’: mayor

The flights arriving in Winnipeg are charter planes flying directly from Yellowknife, Rosset said.

Mayor Scott Gillingham publicly welcomed displaced residents to Winnipeg on social media Friday.

“The devastation in NWT is terrifying, but Canadian cities always have each others’ backs. Winnipeg is opening its doors & hearts to evacuees from (Yellowknife), and we’ll work with the province to coordinate support. Together, we’ll get through this,” he wrote on X, formerly known as Twitter.

Teams from the Red Cross are stationed at local hotels to welcome people as they arrive and to provide “comfort and care” as they get settled, said Leianne Musselman, the organization’s communications director.

“The teams are quite busy today figuring out emerging needs.”

Musselman said the Manitoba Emergency Management Organization, which coordinates wildfire responses with provincial and federal partners, is working closely with territorial officials.

‘Everything is replaceable’

Miguel Letain, who was raised in Manitoba and moved to Yellowknife in 2019, fled the city Wednesday, just hours before government officials issued the evacuation order.

“It was extremely smoky. In the evening, it looked like what you would see in pictures of Mars. It was orange and red and kind of scary looking,” he said, describing the days and hours before the order came down.

“Every single day it was really tense; you couldn’t relax.”

When Letain began smelling the smoke inside his home, he decided it was time to leave.

He and his wife, Gwenan, fled in the afternoon and drove through the night, travelling more than 1,400 kilometres to Edmonton, where they are staying with family.

“There was just a snowball effect. After one person heard someone was leaving, a couple more people would head out. There were quite a few other people who left before the order was given,” he said.

“As I was packing, I realized that when it came down to it there is not a ton of things that I absolutely need to save. Everything is replaceble except for Gwenan, myself and our two cats.”

Letain does not know when they’ll be able to return; they’re waiting for updates from regional officials.

The territorial government on Saturay said 236 wildfires were currently burning in the region, including one outside the capital city. More than two million hectares are affected.

In comparison, only 47 wildfires are burning in Manitoba, with 277 reported this year to date.

British Columbia is similarly experiencing rampant fires. Hundreds of blazes are burning across the province, prompting the provincial government to declare a state of emergency Friday.

Fires deemed out of control are burning on both sides of Lake Okanagan, near Kelowna.

Some 15,000 people have already evacuated their homes, and 20,000 others are under evacuation alerts.

The amount of forest burned by wildfire is projected to double by in Canada by 2050, with longer wildfire seasons, more extreme weather conditions and increased droughts brought on by climate change, according to the Canadian Space Agency.

Canada typically sees about 7,500 wildfires burn around 2.5 million hectares of forest annually.

“This year is a record-breaking wildfire season in Canada. In early August, the number of hectares burned was roughly double what is normally burned during an entire season,” the agency said in a statement.

tyler.searle@freepress.mb.ca