Wildfire’s aftermath greets returning evacuees By: Nicole Buffie Posted: 6:12 PM CDT Monday, May. 19, 2025 Last Modified: 6:37 PM CDT Monday, May. 19, 2025 Updates

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LAC DU BONNET — Residents evacuated from wildfires near Lac du Bonnet are returning home to assess property damage and rebuild what’s been destroyed by the deadly blaze.

On Monday JoAnne Hirst was waiting to replace about a dozen fence posts at the edge of her pasture that was hit by fire nearly a week ago on Tuesday.

“I thought I was going to have roast beef out there,” she joked Monday afternoon, referring to her cattle grazing nearby.

Near the back of Hirst’s property, a patchwork of charred grass marks her property line. Water hoses snake through her field and are being used to control hot spots of the 4,000-hectare wildfire nearby.

Hirst lives on about 150 acres on Wendigo Road and rents out more property nearby. She and her family have farmed cattle in the area since 1909.

She was told to evacuate from her home on Tuesday afternoon and was receiving updates from a friend who remained in his home to watch over his animals.

She received a photo from him late Tuesday showing the flames in her backyard.

“It was just so frightening, and the smoke was billowing everywhere,” she said. “The fire was just raging. It moved so quickly.”

The fire didn’t get close enough to threaten her home, but she estimates it will be about a month before the grass in her pasture grows back.

By Monday afternoon, Hirst guessed the fire was about 20 kilometres away from her home.

She feels lucky she was only touched by the blaze while others have nothing left.

“I just felt helplessness, like you can’t do a thing. You just wait and see what happens,” she said.

After an uncertain few days, the RM of Lac du Bonnet lifted evacuation orders for about 150 residents Sunday afternoon for the area south of provincial road 313 between Urban Road and Belluk Road.

Some residents along Wendigo Road were allowed back home last Thursday afternoon but a blockade remained along a stretch of Wendigo directly impacted by the blaze.

Reeve Loren Schinkel said about 28 properties in total have been destroyed by the fire.

The fire has claimed the lives of two people who were trapped by the fire.

Sue and Richard Nowell became trapped in their home, located along Wendigo Road, and couldn’t escape before the flames engulfed the property, according to a Gofundme in support of the Nowell’s two sons, Emmett and Ryland.

Emmett and his girlfriend, Madison, were home at the time and managed to escape but Emmett sustained burns for which he is being treated, the fundraiser’s page says.

The fundraiser raised more than $176,000 as of Monday afternoon.

Water bombers were seen flying over Wendigo Road while trucks and Manitoba Hydro crews below drove to and from residences and past the blockade.

Late Monday afternoon the RM reopened the Cape Coppermine area along provincial road 433 from Widgeon Row to George Carteret Way to residents, which wasn’t directly hit by the fire.

In town, the community’s evacuation registration centre is distributing snacks, hygiene products and pet food for displaced residents. The community centre is acting as the de-facto cheque distribution centre for evacuees who are being compensated by the provincial government.

In the centre’s parking lot, a mobile Wawanesa Insurance truck is fielding questions from residents asking what their next steps should be when they return home and assess property damage.

Schinkel said that while firefighters are still battling peat moss fires which currently presents the biggest fire risk in the area, the municipality is already in re-build mode.

“What we’re focused on now is the remediation process. We’re focused on how we move forward,” he said.

If all goes well, the municipality is hoping to take residents in the most affected areas to their properties to plan next steps for their properties.

Hydro workers are still in the area replacing upwards of 200 electrical poles taken out by the wildfire.

Schinkel said he always knew the municipality was susceptible to wildfire and through initiatives like its Connect program, which alerts residents in the area to emergencies through text and email, it can better prepare residents in the future.

He also plans to hold a debrief meeting with council and others to discuss lessons learned from the blaze.

While residents may be anxious to return home, Schinkel asked they stay patient while the RM continues to assess the area with emergency management and wildfire services.

“Everybody’s got a role and everybody stays in their lane,” he said.

nicole.buffie@freepress.mb.ca

Nicole Buffie
Multimedia producer

Nicole Buffie is a reporter for the Free Press city desk. Born and bred in Winnipeg, Nicole graduated from Red River College’s Creative Communications program in 2020 and worked as a reporter throughout Manitoba before joining the Free Press newsroom as a multimedia producer in 2023. Read more about Nicole.

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