Wildfires force evacuation of Aikens Lake Wilderness Lodge

What began as a calm day of fishing became, within hours, near-apocalyptic for visitors at Aikens Lake Wilderness Lodge on Wednesday afternoon.

Raging wildfires, whipped up by 40 km/h winds, forced a swift evacuation of the remote leisure site located 295 kilometres northeast of Winnipeg.

“It was like a nuclear bomb,” said lodge guest Andrew Paterson. “The way that it exploded was just absolutely stunning to see. It really was over just the course of a couple of hours.”

Paterson, a co-host of Winnipeg Sports Talk, a popular daily YouTube stream, arrived at the Aikens Lake lodge on Monday. He said the first two days were pristine — calm, clear and glassy on the lake. But by Wednesday, conditions had dramatically changed.

Paterson and a group of friends were finishing up lunch when they noticed how quickly fires in the distance were spreading, due to the heavy winds coming from the south.

“At noon or just before, we were watching a fire that we thought, ‘Oh, this could probably get close to one of the shorelines,’ and two hours later, it was all over the place,” Paterson said.

Staff had spent the previous days cutting trees to protect two vulnerable outposts: Great Grey Owl Lodge and Lost Lake Outpost. Although the main lodge, situated on a peninsula, never faced direct danger, the magnitude and swiftness of the fire took guests by surprise.

“When we came around the bend with a kind of blue sky behind us and looked to where we were going, it was the craziest thing I’ve ever seen. I mean, it was black, like it would be black at 11 o’clock at night and it was 2 o’clock in the afternoon,” Paterson said.

All guests were flown out by 5:30 p.m. on Wednesday, while a few staff remained on Thursday to complete the evacuation.

Pit Turenne, general manager of the lodge, said a firefighter crew is tackling the blaze.

massimo.deluca-taronno@freepress.mb.ca