Lac du Bonnet wildfire evacuees return but for many, 'their world has changed'

CBC

20-05-2025

Evacuated areas of Lac du Bonnet are slowly repopulating in the wake of an out-of-control wildfire that's now contained after leaving a path of destruction that includes two lives lost.
"Yesterday afternoon we managed to get people back into the largest area there, some 650 residents," said Loren Schinkel, reeve for the rural municipality, northeast of Winnipeg, where 850 to 1,000 people were forced to leave shortly after the fire began May 13.
Emergency officials have been allowing select areas of the community's evacuation zone to return since last week, some on Wednesday night, some Thursday, a few more Sunday and again more on Monday.
It's been a graduated process as the fire's been attacked and contained, Schinkel said on Tuesday.
Officials also met Monday with residents in the east Wendigo Road area where the fire began and 28 cottages and homes were lost.
Sue and Richard Nowell died there after being trapped by the fire on May 13.
"Their world has changed up there," Schinkel said, offering condolences on behalf of council and RM residents to those who've lost life and property.
"People that were allowed back in yesterday, certainly they're they're glad to go home, but others can't, unfortunately. Some people have lost everything."
Schinkel said he's never seen such complete destruction. If a fire burns a house, there is an expectation of a pile of rubble, of collapsed walls and roofs, he said.
"There's nothing in this area that's like that. It was burning at 1,600 C. It was travelling at five kilometres an hour at its peak," he said. "Everything's disintegrated. It's vaporized because of the intensity of the heat. It's apocalyptic, really.
"I describe it as a demon, a creature that just, you know, chose its path and did its damage."
Monday's reopening allowed evacuees to return to the Cape Coppermine and Granite Hills areas as well as the west side of the Lee River.
"Basically everybody in that area on the east side of Pinawa Bay, Pinawa Channel, is back into their residences," Schinkel said.
The Grausdin Point and north Wendigo area are still under an evacuation order, but the hope is to reopen that soon, says a post on the Lac du Bonnet Emergency Management Facebook page.
Despite the return to many areas, the danger hasn't completely subsided. There have been flare-ups and people are being urged to keep an eye out for flames.
"Hot spots can linger and blow out as the wind temperature and humidity change," the Facebook post says.
Flames can smoulder underground in peat lands, unseen until they erupt again. In one such area, crews have been digging in peat, with helicopters dumping buckets of water, Schinkel said.
While the RM of Lac du Bonnet fire is now being held, the Bird River/Nopiming fire just to the northeast is a big concern.
That one, still listed as out of control, covers more than 100,000 hectares. By comparison, the Lac du Bonnet one peaked at 4,000 hectares.
"This fire is of the size and magnitude that if it turned on us with residents at home in the east region, the impacts would be devastating," the Facebook post said.
As a result, all areas east of Belluk Road, along Highways 313 and 315 — including Pinawa Bay and Sunset Bay — remain under evacuation orders.
The Bird River/Nopiming fire has destroyed 20 cabins and homes, and people there have said boats melted in the heat.
Two other fires in the province also remain listed as out of control — the Ingolf, Ont. fire along the Manitoba-Ontario border, which has crept into Whiteshell Provincial Park, and the fire in the rural municipality of Piney, southeast of the Whiteshell.
As of Monday night, the Ingolf fire had reached more than 31,000 hectares in size.
The status of the Piney fire is expected to be changed soon to "being held," the RM's Facebook page says. An evacuation order was lifted Monday, allowing residents to return.
There are 13 fires currently active in Manitoba, according to the province's FireView page, though it is out of date. The last update was May 18.