Manitoba’s wildfires continue to grow

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This article was published 10/05/2016 (3446 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

CADDY LAKE — The fire raging between a small chain of lakes including Nora, Florence, and Caddy Lake has grown considerably wider in the last day.

The fire singed a cottage development on Nora Lake on Monday, taking out a shed and some wood shelters, but as of early afternoon Tuesday the cottages were still standing.

Firefighters worked desperately throughout the day and the night to save cottages at Florence and Nora lakes, just north of Caddy Lake, overnight Monday and into Tuesday, say people with cottages on those lakes.

“Cottages on Nora were OK as of last (Monday) night , although some very close calls and maybe a bit of structural damage,” said a circular emailed among the 50 or so cottage owners on Florence and Nora lakes.

“The fire spread along south Nora (Lake) — has not started burning through the portage to South Cross.”

Some of the information came from two volunteer firefighters, left behind at the cottage development on Nora Lake to make sure pumps for the sprinkler systems on rooftops were operative. The circular says the volunteers, Bruce Harding and Paul Wanke, had to be airlifted to safety by helicopter last night. “Bruce and Paul saved a couple of cottages. Bruce lost a shed and some wood shelters,” it said.

“Things are very tense, to say the least.”

One cottager on Florence, contacted electronically by the Free Press but did not want to be identified, called Tuesday “make or break it day for Florence. The last stand.”

While some moisture dropped on Winnipeg Tuesday morning, the fire area was still dry in the afternoon, but some precipitation is forecast possibly Tuesday night or Wednesday.

Caddy Lake fire

 

People in the area have been told little from fire officials about the progress but those watching the fire on a daily basis, like Howard Manchulenko on Caddy Lake’s west shore, estimate the fire moved about three kilometres closer in the past 24 hours.

On Tuesday, the fire was close enough that he could see water bombers dropping loads of water, which he couldn’t see Monday. Manchulenko believes the path of the fire, which is traveling west into Manitoba, widened by that distance overnight

“I estimated it was five kilometres away (Monday). It’s two kilometres away today,” said Manchulenko. That is an estimated distance from Caddy’s north shore. There are no cottages on that north shore because it has been left to wilderness, but there are some cottages on a nearby island.

Manchulenko fears the fire could jump the channel between South Cross Lake and Caddy Lake, and come at cottages like his. “It’s a narrow channel. The fire could jump that,” he said.

For that reason, the West Hawk Volunteer Fire Service began putting sprinkler systems late Monday on top of cottage roofs on the west shore where Howard and Michelle Manchulenko are, for fire protection.

One pump at water’s edge supplies water for four or five sprinkler systems each.

The West Hawk volunteers were joined by the Morden Volunteer Fire Department, which generously offered its services.

Beresford Lake fire

Manchulenko’s brothers hauled his boats and snowmobile back to Winnipeg last night in case the fire does jump the channel. “If it burns to this shoreline, we’d be in trouble in a hurry,” he said.

About 80 people evacuated from Ingolf because of fire, and staying in hotels in West Hawk, don’t expect to return until next week at the earliest, and perhaps much later.

“When we were first evacuated, we thought it might be for a day, maybe two,” said Bob Hazelhurst, a full time resident of the cottage community of Ingolf, Ontario, which can only be accessed by Manitoba Highway 312, and then boat.

Now the realization has set in it that it will be a much longer wait than that. Waiting is hard, and the lack of information from conservation officials from both Manitoba and Ontario is frustrating, but evacuees say they have been treated royally by West Hawk Lake businesses.

“If we’re not out by May long weekend, I’m not sure where we’ll go,” said Hazelhurst, a permanent resident of Ingolf.

Hazelhurst recalled how he first learned of the fire. It was 6 p.m. and clear sky looking out at the lake. He got a phone call from the volunteer fire captain for Ingolf saying he and his wife should be prepared to evacuate. He couldn’t believe it. “There was no signal, no smell, no smoke,” he recalled.

“I looked behind the cottage, and, holy crap! It was just the biggest puff of white smoke. It was huge.”

That was at about 6 p.m. last Thursday. The evacuation order came about 11 p.m.

Ingolf evacuees wished they had more information. A Manitoba conservation officer briefed them the first few days of the fire but they haven’t heard anything the past two days.

Ross Edmunds, also from Ingolf, said he is “about 70 per cent” confident the Ingolf homes and cottages are safe. Provincial officials have told residents the sprinkler systems work very well for protection, and the fire that threatened Ingolf has died down. “But it still could flare up,” he said, especially if winds blow from the north. It was an east, southeast wind during the day on Tuesday.

bill.redekop@freepress.mb.ca