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CBC
6 hours ago
- CBC
Wildfire, smoke forces evacuation of Nisichawayasihk Cree Nation
Social Sharing Wildfires in northern Manitoba are forcing thousands of residents from a First Nation out of their homes over poor air quality and concerns that flames might engulf the only road access to the community. Nisichawayasihk Cree Nation (NCN) was put under a mandatory full evacuation order on Saturday. Deputy Chief Marcel Moody told CBC News roughly 300 priority residents — including seniors, children and people with underlying health conditions — have so far left Nisichawayasihk for Winnipeg. "I've never seen anything like this in my entire life," Moody said. "The smoke situation has been terrible all summer … it gets worse at certain times, and we are scared the road might be closed." By Sunday morning, more than 3,000 residents were still in Nisichawayasihk. The expectation is most of the residents waiting to be evacuated will be out in the coming days. "We want to do this as quickly as possible to make sure that nobody is stuck," Moody said. "It's a tough task, but we have to do it." One of the closest wildfires is burning about half an hour away from the Nisichawayasihk, Moody said, and there are fears wind might fan the flames toward the road that connects the community with Thompson, about an hour's drive away, and engulf Highway 391, the only land access point in or out. Closure of the road because of the wildfire has already slowed down the evacuation, Moody said. Bus routes out of Nisichawayashik were ground to a halt between 10 a.m. Saturday and 7 a.m. on Sunday after the road was closed because of the threat of the wildfire. "It's a concern for the community and for our people," the deputy chief said. Highway 391 remains closed to passenger traffic and is only open for emergency vehicles and evacuees, the province said in a news release at around 12:30 p.m. Sunday. The latest data from Manitoba's wildfire services map shows at least two wildfires burning north of Nisichawayasihk— also known as Nelson House — including one that has grown to over 46,000 hectares by Saturday. According to the province's latest fire bulletin, issued Wednesday, the Manitoba Wildfire Service was responding to 127 active wildfires across the province, which has seen a total of 351 wildfires to date, well above the average for this time of year of 276. 'A terrible summer' For about 600 residents in Nisichawayasihk, this is their second evacuation in less than a month. The Cree Nation declared a state of emergency in July due to heavy smoke billowing from wildfires and polluting the air. Hundreds of vulnerable residents, including dozens living in a personal care home, were evacuated from the community. But most of the 600 evacuees had already returned home by last week and now they are being forced out of their homes once again, Moody said. "It's been a terrible summer," he said. "People have been breathing the smoke pretty much the whole summer, [we] don't know what the impact is gonna be … long-term for people's health. A lot of our people are asthmatic [or] have respiratory issues." The evacuations at this time have mostly been co-ordinated by Nisichawayasihk with support from the Red Cross and Indigenous Services Canada at this time. While some evacuees will stay at a monastery, the majority of evacuees will go to the RBC Convention Centre in Winnipeg, where the province has set up one congregate shelter. "People are stressed out, people don't want to leave their communities, they don't know what's happening," Moody said.
CBC
3 days ago
- CBC
Firefighters kept busy with eruption of calls after severe lightning on the Avalon, says platoon chief
Part of Newfoundland's Avalon Peninsula was hit with an intense thunderstorm on Wednesday, which seemed to keep firefighters in the region busy overnight with a high volume of calls,says the platoon chief for the St. John's Regional Fire Department. Mike Hall said on average, the department typically gets about a dozen calls from midnight to 8 a.m. "But last night, in a period of four hours, we had over 50 calls come in with multiple structure fires throughout the city," he told CBC News. He said the busy period started around 11:30 p.m. on Wednesday and ended around 4 a.m., and included calls to residential fires, a pole fire, shed fire, lightning strikes on a house and medical calls. "The place just erupted with activity," said Hall. As soon as a truck was done at one site, he said they would be sent to another, before being sent to another call. Many of the calls came in around the time when a thunder and lightning storm was hitting the region, but Hall couldn't definitively say if the high level of activity was connected, as the investigations haven't been completed. "But certainly very coincidental that at the very time all these lightning strikes were happening within the city that, you know, we happen [to have] all these structure fires. So I would certainly think there's a correlation." He said whenever there are lightning strike, there is a worry it could develop into something more serious. "Luckily last night, after the lightning strikes, well, then the rain came," said Hall. One call was for a fire at a home on Pilot's Hill in downtown St. John's, which Hall said two fire stations worked on. Residents have been displaced and the adjoining homes have smoke damage. Another call was for a pole fire on Baird Place, where there was a live wire in the rear of a home, he said. A detached shed also caught at a Paradise home, he said. "All significant calls," said Hall. However, he said with the hard work of the firefighters, their call centre and Newfoundland Power, it was all contained. To handle the influx of calls Hall said they had to bring in additional people in to work the call centre. As far as he knows there were no reported injuries connected to the fires. 'Crazy pictures' Meteorologist Melissa Field said Wednesday evening's storm developed east of the Burin Peninsula and tracked across parts of the Avalon Peninsula and into the St. John's metro area. Environment Canada issued a severe thunderstorm warning for the St. John's metro area. "We don't typically issue severe thunderstorm warnings for just thunder and lightning. It's more of the impact, the actual weather that goes along with them," she told CBC. Field said the storm pulled offshore around midnight. "So we were seeing on social media all kinds of crazy pictures, videos of all the lightning. So it did look like it put on quite the show," said Field. CBC News has asked Newfoundland Power for an update, and according to its website as of Thursday morning there are five unplanned power outages in the area spanning St. John's to the southern shore, three of which are caused by lightning.
CBC
4 days ago
- CBC
Campers near B.C.'s Harrison Lake asked to rethink long weekend plans due to wildfire
Meanwhile, Cantilever Bar wildfire remains out of control about 10 kilometres south of Lytton Campers looking to pitch a tent at a popular lake in B.C.'s Fraser Valley may have to find alternative plans due to an out-of-control wildfire that was first detected on Tuesday evening. The Bear Creek fire, located by Harrison Lake, covers an area of 65 hectares as of 5 p.m. PT on Wednesday, according to the B.C. Wildfire Service (BCWS). First responders are asking the public to stay off Harrison Lake, and fire information officer Julia Caranci says that some campers in the vicinity were already asked to leave for their own safety. "We are going to be recommending some road closures very likely before the long weekend," she told CBC News. "This is just to keep people out of the area, to keep responders safe." Caranci said exact details on road closures would be posted as they happen, and firefighters were requesting that people stay out of the area entirely and find other places to recreate, ahead of the B.C. Day long weekend. "I totally understand that this is going to change plans for a number of people. This is a very popular high-use recreational location," Caranci said. "But we want people to stay clear of the active wildfire operations, especially because this is an emerging incident." Embed | Location of Bear Creek wildfire near B.C.'s Harrison Lake Open full embed in new tab Loading external pages may require significantly more data usage than loading CBC Lite story pages. The fire is suspected to be human-caused, a broad category that includes all fires not sparked by lightning. Caranci said that B.C.'s South Coast was extremely dry over the last couple of weeks, posing challenges for firefighters. "We are going to see some instability coming up, possibly some rain in some parts of that Fraser Valley area, but nothing substantial as far as we can see in that short-term forecast," she said. Campfires remain banned in much of the South Coast, and larger Category 2 and Category 3 fires — which include larger stubble fires and large burn piles — are prohibited throughout B.C. Image | HARRISON LAKE WILDFIRE Caption: Smoke from the Bear Creek wildfire near Harrison Lake is seen from a nearby marina in this picture posted by the B.C. Wildfire Service. (B.C. Wildfire Service/X) Open image in new tab Size updated for Lytton fire BCWS data shows a blaze south of Lytton, B.C., that has triggered multiple evacuation alerts is three times its original estimated size and continues to burn out of control. The service's latest update on the Cantilever Bar wildfire says it is now measured at 4.6 square kilometres, up from the 1.5 square kilometres reported earlier this week. Image | Cantilever Bar Wildfire near Lytton 28 July 2025 Caption: A image of the Cantilever Bar wildfire taken by the B.C. Wildfire Service. The fire is burning out of control about 10 kilometres south of Lytton on the west side of the Fraser River. (B.C. Wildfire Service) Open image in new tab The update says the larger estimate is due to more accurate perimeter mapping after smoke cleared enough to allow aircraft to fly overhead. Evacuation alerts have been issued by the Thompson-Nicola Regional District and three local First Nations communities for a handful of area properties. WATCH | Wildfire south of Lytton leads to evacuation alerts: Media Video | Wildfire south of Lytton, B.C. leads to evacuation alert Caption: Provincial officials say they're hopeful firefighting efforts will protect Lytton from a nearby out-of-control wildfire, as the small village continues to rebuild from the catastrophic 2021 blaze. The Cantilever Bar wildfire was discovered on Monday, about 10 kilometres south of the village. The CBC's Chad Pawson has more. Open full embed in new tab Loading external pages may require significantly more data usage than loading CBC Lite story pages. The wildfire service says the Cantilever Bar wildfire is about 10 kilometres south of Lytton. Lytton is a small Interior B.C. community that was devastated by fire in 2021 — and is located on the east side of the Fraser River. The BCWS says the fire is highly visible from Highway 1 (the Trans-Canada Highway) and motorists should drive with extra caution. The blaze is also suspected to be human-caused. The service says 45 firefighters are on site, and "conditions are very dry and fuels are highly susceptible to ignition." There are about 60 active wildfires across the province, with out-of-control blazes reported in the Fraser Canyon, the Rockies near Jasper National Park and the northeastern corner of B.C. The service says a forecast of above-seasonal temperatures and the risk of dry lightning across almost all of the province this week could increase the probability of new fires, despite anticipated low winds.
