Ten firefighters to battle 40,000-hectare blaze Community of Sherridon fears it could be wiped out as resources stretched to the max in Manitoba By: Nicole Buffie Posted: 6:09 PM CDT Tuesday, May. 27, 2025 Last Modified: 8:50 AM CDT Wednesday, May. 28, 2025 Updates

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A remote community in northern Manitoba has been left vulnerable to wildfire due to a lack of provincial resources, a local councillor says.

Sherridon Coun. Sheryl Matheson says a 40,000-hectare wildfire is mere kilometers away from the 85-person community, but there are no water bombers or out-of-province aid left to battle the blaze.

“Every residence or building has sprinklers on them, but the fire is so large and so fast that the wildfire services doesn’t have a bomber on it, they don’t have a crew on it. They have nothing,” said Matheson.

The councillor said 10 community firefighters and the sprinkler system are the only line of defence against the blaze.

The province’s fire map showed 18 active wildfires across the province at last count, with seven considered out of control.

Matheson estimates the fire west of Sherridon, located approximately 800 km north of Winnipeg, is about five km away from town limits.

“We’re not that big of a community … but there’s nothing happening with the fire itself, which is very, very frustrating for the residents,” she said. “If the wind changes, it could take out the entire community.”

Residents were evacuated from the community Sunday night. They were given a few hours to pack before charters came to take them from the region. Evacuees are staying in Dauphin or with loved ones outside the community.

A provincial spokesperson said fire crews are deployed to areas based on resources, weather, and wind direction and couldn’t provide information on which resources are attached to each fire across the province.

Manitoba has seven water bombers fighting the fires, as well as 66 firefighters from Alberta, 41 firefighters from British Columbia, 19 firefighters from Parks Canada, an air-tanker group supplied from Alberta and 500 sprinklers from B.C.

“If the wind changes, it could take out the entire community.”–Sheryl Matheson

In Pimicikamak Cree Nation, incident commander Ryan Castel said the community was due to receive three charters to evacuate sick and vulnerable residents to protect them from wildfire smoke, but they were diverted at the last minute elsewhere.

“When our fire started here, we contacted the forestry department and they said all the (water) bombers are sent elsewhere and choppers and everything like that,” Castel said. “They were able to find people to help but I hear they don’t even have any equipment left, they had to send it all down south.”

About 300 people from the Pimicikamak (also known as Cross Lake) were evacuated over the weekend as a precaution due to smoke in the area from two wildfires burning south of the community.

Castel said the fires, one of which that has grown to 1,500 hectares and is out of control, are beginning to box in the community and is encroaching on Highway 373.

Late Tuesday, the province announced Highway 373, the community’s link to Highway 6 and the rest of the province, was closed due to the fire.

Castel said the fire had spread rapidly and Pimicikamak was expected to lose power, but no lives were directly at stake.

Nonetheless, people stuck in the area have begun to panic, Pimicikamak Chief David Monias said.

“We don’t have anywhere to go right now, and we’re just trapped at Cross Lake,” he said. “But at the same time, we’re trying to open up the evacuations (and) keep going.”

The chief said the fire was aggressive.

“That means you have heavy swirls, violent behaviour, (it’s) unpredictable … You have fireballs, literally fireballs,” he said.

“It currently has four heads, it’s heading north, heading south, heading west, and it’s heading east, all four directions. It’s pretty big, and we are worried about it.”

Monias said he spoke with Indigenous Services Canada and was told the community would receive support with evacuations.

“How that’s going to happen, I don’t know how yet.”

As of Tuesday afternoon, the communities of Easterville, Sherridon, Lynn Lake, Cross Lake and Marcel Colomb First Nation were under evacuation orders.

Reception centres for evacuees have been set up in Winnipeg, Brandon, Dauphin and Thompson.

Matheson said the Sherridon evacuees have yet to receive any financial aid due to a backlog at the province’s emergency social services branch.

“They’re being told it’s going to be another day or two for any sort of financial support. And we basically gave these people an hour and a half notice to pack a bag and leave. So a lot of them are in a very bad situation,” she said.

The councillor has been in regular contact with Municipal Relations and Northern Affairs Minister Glen Simard about the issues affecting the community, which she called a comfort, but stressed the frustration of the situation.

“They’re just sitting at the hotels waiting and looking to me for answers that I can’t give them right now,” she said.

The province said financial support was being distributed to evacuees Tuesday in Dauphin with payments being delivered room by room.

Social services is in the process of contacting evacuees staying elsewhere to make arrangements for payment.

Simard’s office did not respond to interview requests before press time.

The recent evacuations come less than two weeks after a deadly fire in the Rural Municipality of Lac du Bonnet that forced close to 1,000 people to flee, destroyed 28 homes and cottages, and killed two people.

Fires continue to emerge in areas including Easterville/Chemawawin, Wanless and Flin Flon, the province said in a late Tuesday fire bulletin.

It said the fires are being assessed and monitored and more details would be provided tomorrow.

An out-of-control fire continues to burn near Bird River and has grown to more than 124,000 hectares. A fire at the Manitoba-Ontario border is approximately 31,000 hectares in size, with 3,770 hectares burning on the Manitoba side of the border.

The bulletin confirmed a firefighter was severely injured Sunday, but did not say at which location. The firefighter has been hospitalized.

nicole.buffie@freepress.mb.ca