Flin Flon evacuees stay put, Bissett residents given all-clear to go home By: Chris Kitching Posted: 1:12 PM CDT Tuesday, Jun. 17, 2025 Last Modified: 4:56 PM CDT Tuesday, Jun. 17, 2025 Updates

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This article was published 17/06/2025 (464 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Flin Flon wildfire evacuee Brett Holland is taking things day by day while roughly 5,000 residents of the northern city begin a fourth week away from their homes — with no return date in sight.

Flin Flon officials said hot spots continued to burn close to the city and there’s the potential for flare-ups and flames to spread toward the city should vegetation reignite.

“I know people are really getting antsy to get back, and I feel the same way. I miss my home,” said Holland, who’s been staying with family in Winnipeg since Flin Flon issued a mandatory evacuation order May 28. “I’d rather wait until it’s safe to go back than rush it.”

Holland, 35, said he is focusing on the fact that no structures have been reported destroyed within Flin Flon’s limits, despite flames being on the city’s doorstep at one point.

“We still have our homes. I’m really grateful,” he said.

Some residents of nearby Denare Beach, just over the border in Saskatchewan, weren’t as fortunate.

Flin Flon resident Paige Bada, 26, said she feels “in limbo.”

“Honestly, I’m just taking it one day at a time,” said Bada, who is staying with family in Minnedosa. “I’m really just trying to make the best of it.”

She feels tired and misses the apartment she moved into shortly before Flin Flon was evacuated.

“I kind of feel the same way as a lot of people — just out of routine,” Bada said.

While the re-entry plan is being worked on, it is not yet known when it will be deemed safe to return to Flin Flon, located on the Manitoba-Saskatchewan boundary.

It was one of multiple communities to be evacuated in both provinces due to an out-of-control blaze that merged with others to span more than 370,000 hectares, or seven times the size of Winnipeg, on the Manitoba side of the boundary.

In eastern Manitoba, the southern part of Nopiming Provincial Park is scheduled to reopen to permanent residents, cottagers and commercial operators at 8 a.m. Wednesday.

Provincial Road 315 will reopen with access to Bird, Booster, Flanders and Davidson lakes, the province announced.

The rest of the park is still under a mandatory evacuation order, originally issued May 13, due to an out-of-control, 218,700-hectare fire.

About 80 evacuees from Bissett began returning Tuesday.

The fire was one of 20 active blazes reported by the Manitoba Wildfire Service Tuesday, up from 18 one day earlier.

Manitoba’s fire danger level was high even though conditions continued to improve, the province said in a bulletin.

The Canadian Red Cross said 21,500 evacuees from 9,000 households had registered as of Sunday.

Hundreds of hot spots and the potential for flare-ups continued to pose a significant risk to Flin Flon, city officials warned.

On Monday, about 40 firefighters began tackling some of the 350 hot spots, which were detected by a drone equipped with an infrared scanner, within a 350-hectare area just south of Flin Flon’s Channing neighbourhood and former Mandy Lake mine.

“They’ve certainly found a lot of hot spots, and they’ve sent people in with a map to go after each one of them,” Mayor George Fontaine told the Free Press.

The flames were in a potentially dangerous area for reignition, given the amount of trees and other fuel present, with a potential path toward the city, Flin Flon fire Chief Jason Kuras said in a Facebook video Monday.

A large flare-up occurred that day on the east side of Trout Lake, northeast of Flin Flon. About 40 firefighters, water bombers and helicopters with buckets battled the blaze to prevent it from spreading toward the city.

“That leaves the east flank of our whole community (in) danger if that flares up again,” Fontaine said.

In the video, Kuras said an area east of Flin Flon burned so hot and so fast previously that large pockets of vegetation were left and could reignite. If that happens, the fire could head back toward Flin Flon, he warned.

“While we’re mitigating the risk, while things are going very well and we have the help and support, there’s still a great deal of danger that could potentially impact Flin Flon,” Kuras said.

The city shared information about the ongoing risk amid discontent among some evacuees.

“There are frustrations. There are people in pain and in situations that they wish, and I wish, they weren’t in, but it’s all based on safety and preparedness to go back,” Fontaine said.

He said efforts continued to restore essential services, including the city’s hospital, for evacuees’ eventual return.

“It’s going to take a bit of time,” Fontaine said.

Since Saturday, evacuees have started returning to some northern communities, including Cranberry Portage and Pimicikamak Cree Nation, that were deemed safe to re-enter.

Whenever it is made, the decision to lift Flin Flon’s mandatory evacuation order will be based on advice from provincial, federal and local fire officials who are working in a unified command centre, Fontaine said.

“They’re the ones that are well-trained in this, and they’re the ones that will make the decision,” he said.

Tataskweyak Cree Nation was forced to pause the return of its residents Tuesday, after lifting a mandatory evacuation order Monday night in connection with a separate fire.

A statement, published on Tataskweyak’s council’s Facebook page, said the northern community’s water supply was turned off because its treatment plant had stopped working.

Water tests showed high aluminum levels, the statement said.

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Tataskweyak, which declared a local state of emergency, was working with the federal government to identify and fix the problem.

The Town of Lynn Lake is also working to restore essential services, including its hospital, before evacuees can return. A mandatory evacuation order has been in place since May 27 due to an out-of-control blaze.

In a statement, the town said it was advised Tuesday by the wildfire service to wait at least 48 hours before beginning a broader return.

“Leading up to the end of the evacuation order, the town will allow essential staff to return on a case-by-case basis to support critical services,” the statement said.

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.