Forest fire forces overnight escape
• Some 2,000 residents of a remote Manitoba Indigenous community took turns piling into boats in the darkness as they fled a large forest fire that raced toward their homes.
They were evacuated in small groups, late into Tuesday night, for a 20-minute boat ride to a nearby reserve that has an airstrip, where they were to wait for a flight 600 kilometres south to Brandon or Winnipeg.
“Probably midnight, we were still transporting by boat,” Chief Alex McDougall of Wasagamack First Nation said Wednesday morning.
“Those boats that were equipped with navigation lights were going back and forth, ferrying the evacuees.”
The fire, 770 square kilometres in size, came within 800 metres of some homes on the edge of Wasagamack and remained there Wednesday, the Manitoba government said.
“Manitoba’s water bombers worked on this fire until yesterday evening with only limited success because dense smoke prevented the aircraft from approaching the fires,” Sustainable Development Minister Rochelle Squires said Wednesday.
Smoke f r om t he fire also prompted a partial evacuation of people with health concerns from two other First Nation communities — St. Theresa Point, where the Wasagamack evacuees were first taken, and Garden Hill.
The Red Cross, which was managing the evacuations for the federal government, was searching for more airplanes to help transport a total of up to 3,700 people from the three reserves to the south. The small airstrips in St. Theresa Point and Garden Hill mean only small planes, carrying 40 to 45 people each, can be used.
“We’re working with the provincial government and the federal government to source planes and to speed up the evacuation,” said Canadian Red Cross regional vicepresident Shawn Feely, who esti- mated 1,200 people were likely to make it south by the end of the day.
The agency was also planning to set up a large emergency shelter in Winnipeg, if needed, because hotels are close to capacity in the summer tourist season.
Water bombers were bring brought in from the Northwest Territories, Minnesota and Ontario to fight the Wasagamack fire and other blazes that have cropped up following weeks of hot, dry weather.
A 46-square-kilometre fire was within 3.5 kilometres of Poplar River, where residents had been evacuated earlier as a precaution. A smaller blaze was reported six kilometres from the Fox Lake First Nation.
The Wasagamack fire remained the biggest concern Wednesday. McDougall said the winds that had driven the fire close to the community had switched, and the fire had not made any further advance as a handful of officials remained at the scene. Heavy equipment had been placed as a buffer between the fire and the closest homes.
“We’re continuing to monitor that area, so hopefully the wind will continue to co-operate.”
Wildfires also resulted in a general evacuation being ordered for a northeastern Saskatchewan community because of smoke and road closures.
The Saskatchewan government said emergency social services was preparing to receive an additional 1,100 people from the community of Pelican Narrows.
The government said the plan was to send 500 of those residents to Saskatoon shelters and hotels and 600 to hotels in Prince Albert.
The general evacuation came after about 450 people — including the elderly, those with health concerns and their families — were forced to leave on Tuesday.
Pelican Narrows is under a special air-quality statement from Environment Canada because of high levels of air pollution due to smoke from forest fires in northern Saskatchewan.
In Calgary, unseasonably dry and hot weather prompted the fire department to issue a fire ban.
The ban prohibits the use of fireworks, fire pits, recreational campfires, outdoor fire places and other open flame devices that burn solid fuels, such as wood or briquettes.
Gas or propane stoves and barbecues will still be allowed, along with portable propane fire pits and patio heaters.
The fire ban will be in effect until further notice, when ground and weather conditions are no longer deemed a risk to health and safety.
Environment Canada says Calgary is on track for the hottest summer in more than 100 years.