More wildfire evacuations expected from north

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This article was published 04/08/2021 (1509 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

More residents of Split Lake were to be flown to Winnipeg to escape a 6,600-hectare wildfire that is closing in on the northern community.

People from the Tataskweyak Cree Nation, who have high-priority health issues, along with their partners, were sent by bus to Thompson, starting Tuesday, Red Cross spokesman Jason Small said.

Tuesday night, about 100 of them were flown to Winnipeg, where they will stay in hotels. Small couldn’t say how many more people would be flown to Winnipeg Wednesday.

The agency is helping with transportation, lodging and meals, among other supports.

The blaze is about 6.4 kilometres away from the community, northeast of Thompson.

The First Nation’s leadership asked community members to pack essential items and prepare to leave quickly, in a post on its Facebook page late Monday.

The fire jumped Highway 280, which risked the hydroelectric line from Keeyask Dam. The province shut down the highway from Split Lake to Gillam, the First Nation’s leadership said. It later reopened once the smoke died down.

Air tanker crews held the west side of the fire Tuesday, while westerly winds helped to push the fire away from the community.

Smoke is the main concern, the fire spokesman said, but cooler temperatures and rising humidity will help the firefighting effort.

Seven crews from northern communities as well provincial personnel are working the fire, in conjunction with air tanker support.

In southern Manitoba, the Steinbach Fire Department sent a five-member crew to help battle a 5,100-hectare blaze in Nopiming Provincial Park that forced cottagers at Davidson Lake to evacuate the area earlier this week.

The Steinbach firefighters helped set up sprinklers on cottage roofs, chief Kelvin Toews said.

“Two of them remain there and are there until Friday on fire watch… I believe their job is ensuring the equipment is all still working and (to) be ready to go into action if the fire comes close,” he said.

It’s rare that fire crews from Steinbach would be dispatched to a provincial fire.

“Not since I’ve been chief,” Toews said.

“I remember in the past… 10 to 12 years ago in the Stuartburn area when we had forest fires down there, we assisted.”

However, he thinks it will become more common because of the extreme drought.

“If we don’t get a whole lot of rain in the near future, I could see it happening more often this year,” Toews said.

As of Tuesday, there were 154 active fires in the province: 36 in the east, 28 in the west and 90 in the north.

The Canadian Armed Forces is assisting with monitoring and suppressing fires in six different areas, with the most recent deployment to a wildfire at Pinaymootang First Nation (Fairford) in southern Manitoba.

The military says 120 soldiers are working throughout the province.

The federal government said Wednesday neither Canada nor the United States can lend each other firefighters as they deal with one of the most severe wildfire seasons in recent memory.

The provincial fire spokesman said resource sharing between Manitoba and the U.S. is rare, though it has happened in the past.

erik.pindera@freepress.mb.ca