Manitoba seeks more firefighters to battle out-of-control wildfires

Premier Wab Kinew urged Manitobans to stay away from wildfire-hit areas — including vast sections of cottage country — over the May long weekend, while two victims were mourned and other provinces were asked to send help to battle the flames.

Kinew was among those who paid tribute to a couple, identified locally as Rich and Sue Nowell, who died in a wildfire northeast of Lac du Bonnet, as a separate blaze forced the evacuation of nearby Whiteshell Provincial Park.

“The news of this loss of life changes what was an emergency into a tragedy, and as Manitobans we join those affected in your time of mourning,” Kinew said at a news conference.

The Nowells were trapped by an intense, fast-moving fire in the Rural Municipality of Lac du Bonnet Tuesday.

RCMP have said it wasn’t safe for emergency personnel to try to rescue them. Their bodies were discovered Wednesday.

Flags at the Manitoba legislature were at half-staff “as a small gesture,” said Kinew, who was scheduled to go to the Lac du Bonnet area Thursday evening.

“There’s a shock throughout the community,” Loren Schinkel, the RM’s reeve, said.

Prime Minister Mark Carney offered condolences to the victims’ families and Manitobans affected by fires.

“This tragedy is heartbreaking, especially for such a close-knit community,” he wrote on social media.

The Manitoba Wildfire Service reported 21 fires Thursday, down from 24 one day earlier. Five out-of-control fires in eastern Manitoba were being battled by local and provincial crews.

They were located northeast of Lac du Bonnet (4,008 hectares); in the RM of Alexander and Nopiming Provincial Park areas (93,066 hectares); west of Libau (5,000 hectares); in the RM of Piney (7,886 hectares); and along the Manitoba-Ontario boundary (23,281 hectares, mostly in Ontario).

Kristin Hayward, assistant deputy minister of the wildfire service, said 40 firefighters from B.C., who were helping to battle a 42,650-hectare blaze near The Pas, could be sent to eastern Manitoba if the opportunity arises.

Manitoba asked other provinces, via the Canadian Interagency Forest Fire Centre, for another 80 firefighters. Kinew said some could arrive in the latter part of the long weekend.

Canadian Nuclear Laboratories said some firefighters from its Whiteshell site joined the effort in eastern Manitoba.

Hayward said there have been 80 fires this season, well above the 20-year average of 48. Most were caused by human activity amid tinder-dry conditions, extreme heat and strong winds.

Kinew said the number of evacuees was likely higher than the confirmed tally of more than 1,000 because not everyone had registered. He asked all evacuees to do so.

An evacuation order and local state of emergency went into effect in the Whiteshell and all of its communities Thursday after the fire along the provincial boundary moved into Manitoba.

The 2,700-square-kilometre park, which has 239 permanent residences, plus cottages, businesses and campgrounds, is closed to the public.

Hayward said the province was assessing which areas needed protection the most.

The Whiteshell, normally very busy over the long weekend, was closed, in part, to prevent further tragedy.

“(The park) has a limited number of access roads, and bringing this to the bigger picture, we lost lives in Manitoba,” Kinew said. “This is a serious situation, and I think everyone will understand we are going to definitely take the cautious and safety-minded approach.”

Officials feared easterly winds could push the fire deeper into the park. Gusts of 80 km/h were anticipated in some parts of Manitoba on Friday.

Challenging long weekend

Hayward does not expect this week’s rain to make an appreciable difference to any fires. Lightning strikes pose a fire risk.

“This May long weekend is going to be challenging in Manitoba,” Kinew said. “Not only are we dealing with wildfires in the east, where we could use a lot of rain to help us out, we’re also dealing with an overland flood warning in western Manitoba as a result of too much precipitation potentially coming in that part of the province.”

Blair Mahaffy, a permanent resident at West Hawk Lake in the Whiteshell, was concerned about the change in wind direction.

“If it starts to go (west) rapidly, it will be all throughout the Whiteshell,” he said, while preparing to leave his home. “You worry about what you are going to come back to, if anything. We’re just hoping that everybody is OK, (the fire) is held in place and we get some rain. My heart goes out to people who have lost people and homes.”

Nopiming, Pinawa Dam, Poplar Bay, Wallace Lake, Woodridge, South Atikaki and Manigotagan River provincial parks are also closed.

Kinew urged Manitobans to follow evacuation orders, and not start any type of fire, even if their municipality hasn’t imposed a ban.

A full fire ban and backcountry travel restrictions begin inside and outside provincial parks across southeastern Manitoba at 9 a.m. Friday. Full campfire bans will apply to all eastern and central region provincial parks.

Progress made

Hayward said crews made good progress against the Lac du Bonnet-area fire.

Human activity was listed as the cause of the blaze. The precise cause is under investigation, Hayward said.

Schinkel said ground crews and helicopters with water buckets were hitting hot spots.

“It’s far from being over, and we need some moisture,” he said.

Schinkel was concerned about forecast wind speeds, after powerful gusts caused the fire to rapidly spread, even leaping treetops, when it started Tuesday.

More than two dozen homes in the RM were destroyed. Evacuees were allowed to return to Wendigo Road subdivisions and residences, between Provincial Road 313 and Newcombe Road, at 8 p.m. Other evacuation orders remained in effect.

About 500 Manitoba Hydro customers were still without power as equipment and pole repairs continued.

Kinew addressed why the emergency alert message system wasn’t used to send notifications about evacuation orders to cellphones.

“The idea of putting out an emergency alert was part of the discussions that we’ve had, but in the first instance, we go with the plan that has been drilled locally,” he said.

Schinkel again urged people not to fly drones into fire areas. Water bombers were grounded when someone flew a drone near the Lac du Bonnet fire Wednesday.

“That pushed us back,” Schinkel said.

The Pinawa-based Whiteshell School District closed all of its schools because air quality was hazardous due to wildfire smoke.

Kinew said about 300 people had to leave their homes when the southeastern community of Woodridge, in the RM of Piney, was evacuated Wednesday night.

“The fire level was very intense. It was coming very fast toward Woodridge,” said Piney Reeve Wayne Anderson.

Piney had already evacuated the communities of Badger, Carrick, St. Labre and Florze.

Heavy machinery was used to build fire guards and helicopters dropped buckets of water.

“Badger, St. Labre and Woodridge form a triangle. It’s burning in between all three, and getting closer to each settlement,” Anderson said.

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At least two structures in Piney have been destroyed since the fire started May 10.

Thick smoke prevented an aerial attack against the fire in the Bird River and Nopiming areas, which was sparked by a lightning strike Monday.

Hayward said the focus shifted to ground efforts to protect properties in places that were safe to access.

An evacuation order remained in place for some homes or cottages near Bird River, the RM of Alexander said.

Evacuees are staying in hotels in Winnipeg, Brandon, Steinbach, Altona and Morris.

Manitoba is hosting more than 1,200 wildfire evacuees from northwestern Ontario.

Evacuees were asked to call 211 if they do not know where to turn for help.

— with files from Nicole Buffie and Scott Billeck

chris.kitching@freepress.mb.ca

Chris Kitching
Reporter

Chris Kitching is a general assignment reporter at the Free Press. He began his newspaper career in 2001, with stops in Winnipeg, Toronto and London, England, along the way. After returning to Winnipeg, he joined the Free Press in 2021, and now covers a little bit of everything for the newspaper. Read more about Chris.

Every piece of reporting Chris produces is reviewed by an editing team before it is posted online or published in print — part of the Free Press‘s tradition, since 1872, of producing reliable independent journalism. Read more about Free Press’s history and mandate, and learn how our newsroom operates.