Flin Flon mayor asks evacuees for patience but says return is in the works

CBC

5 hours ago

As nearby communities start to reopen and welcome back people who fled Manitoba wildfires, Flin Flon's mayor is asking evacuees from that city for a little more patience.
"Don't expect to go back before a week from now, and that's not saying you're going back in a week, but that would be your bare minimum," George Fontaine said Monday morning.
"Whether it takes a week or 10 days or 12 days or whatever, you know you've got your home. Your lawn will be a little longer.… You're going to have to catch up on some things, throw some things out of your fridge. But you're going back and you're going back to a house, which, when we left, I didn't expect."
The vast majority of the city of about 5,000 in northwestern Manitoba was cleared out May 28. Some members of city council and some civic employees remained to monitor things and give updates on social media.
But two days later they had to get out, too, leaving only emergency responders behind.
At that time, Fontaine said he was bracing for the worst and for the city to be ravaged by fire in the way Jasper, Alta. was last summer.
As of Monday, there was still no damage to any structures within Flin Flon, Fontaine said.
"That's miraculous from when I left. It's amazing what they've been able to do, because when I look at the fire maps, we've been surrounded at different times on each corner of our community, and yet they managed to push it back," he said.
There have been power outages as power poles burned, but the front-line crews have kept critical assets like water and sewer services functioning the entire time, Fontaine said.
"Everybody is dying to get back into their places, and I understand that. Their patience is waning. We have some people that are not very pleased at all, and I'm getting those comments as well. I can't change how they feel," he said.
"They feel like they should just be able to slip back in, and it just doesn't work like that. Whether they have a patient bone in their body or not, they'll still have to be patient."
Some other evacuated communities in the region — Snow Lake, Sherridon, Pimicikamak Cree Nation and even Cranberry Portage, which is just 35 kilometres from Flin Flon — have either returned or are in the process of doing so.
"But their conditions are different," Fontaine said.
Cranberry Portage, for instance, experienced a large fire last year, and it created a buffer for this fire, he said.
"We do not have that buffer. We still have fresh fuel around us."
Drones are being used to identify any hot spots, he said.
The massive fire in that part of the province was 370,780 hectares in size when the figure was last updated on Friday and still listed as out of control. Reduced winds and cooler temperatures have aided fire crews, but there's been little to no rain, Fontaine said.
The area was forecast to receive 20 millimetres on the weekend and got about one millimetre, said an update on the City of Flin Flon's Facebook page.
The active fire line is 82 kilometres long but has been pushed back enough from Flin Flon that a re-entry plan can be started.
A handful of those involved in critical businesses and essential services have begun to re-enter in order to clean, restock and ensure everything is in place, the Facebook page said.
Things deemed critical include pharmacies, the hospital, grocery stores, gas stations, banks, police and emergency medical services.
"It's going to take some days," Fontaine said. "[The public] can't rush back. It's just too many people involved, [and] it's just not ready."
When the community does go back, a welcome centre will be set up at the Whitney Forum, with hygiene kits and food supplies available, along with public health teams, insurance teams and mental health services, the city's Facebook page said.
As of June 16, there has been a total of 120 wildfires in Manitoba this year to date, with 901,185 hectares burned, the Canadian Interagency Forest Fire Centre said.