Canada: Thousands evacuate Manitoba as wildfires rage – DW – 05/29/2025
The premier of the Manitoba province has said more than 17,000 people need to evacuate their homes in the largest evacuation in "living memory." A province-wide state of emergency was also declared.
More than 17,000 people in Canada's Manitoba province were being evacuated on Wednesday as wildfires raged.
"The Manitoba government has declared a province-wide state of emergency due to the wildfire situation," Manitoba Premier Wab Kinew told a news conference.
"This is the largest evacuation Manitoba will have seen in most people's living memory," he added.
Military assistance requested
Kinew said he had asked Prime Minister Mark Carney to deploy the military to assist with both the evacuation process and the firefighting efforts to quell the fires.
According to Kinew, military aircraft would be deployed "imminently" to help evacuate residents in endangered remote northern communities.
The evacuations include the town of Flin Flon, where 5,000 people were earlier told to prepare to flee as a blaze bore down on the mining town named after a fictional character in a 1905 paperback novel.
Canada: Learning to live with wildfires
To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video
Where are people being evacuated to?
Residents of several other remote towns and Indigenous communities have also been told to evacuate to safety.
Most of the evacuees are expected to be transported to the provincial capital of Winnipeg.
Elsewhere, wildfires in the province of Alberta have prompted a temporary shutdown of some oil and gas production, while forcing residents of at least one small town to evacuate.
History of wildfires
Earlier in May, two people in the small community of Lac du Bonnet died after being caught in a major wildfire northeast of Winnipeg.
The worst wildfire season in Canadian history occurred in 2023. The only recorded deaths then were firefighters.
There are currently 134 wildfires raging across Canada, including fires in British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba and Ontario. Half of these fires are considered out of control.
Canada after the wildfires: Building back better
To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video
Edited by: Sean Sinico
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
DW
2 hours ago
- DW
Nigeria: Death toll from major floods passes 100 – DW – 05/30/2025
Torrential rains in central Nigeria on Wednesday triggered flooding and widespread damage. Rescuers say the death toll has surpassed 100 people. The death toll from widespread floods in central Nigeria rose to at least 111 people on Friday. After torrential rains earlier in the week, flood waters have swept away more than 50 homes in the market town of Mokwa in the central Niger state. Ibrahim Audu Husseini, spokesperson for the Niger state emergency management agency (SEMA) told the Associated Press that "More bodies have just been brought and are yet to be counted, but we have at least 111 confirmed already." The head of the operations office in the Niger state capital Minna, Husseini Isah, said rescue efforts were still ongoing on Friday, but many people were still at risk. "The number keeps rising," he told the Associated Press. Earlier in the day, Husseini, told AFP he "expected the toll to rise considerably because there are different rescuers at different locations." Why is flooding so dangerous in Nigeria? Mokwa is a key local hub for traders from the south of the country and farmers from the north. It is located around 220 kilometers (140 miles) west of the capital Abuja. The flooding was triggered by several hours of heavy rain, with the collapse of a nearby damn exacerbating the situation. Nigeria's Meteorological Agency warned of possible flash floods in 15 of Nigeria's 36 states, including Niger State, between Wednesday and Friday. Nigeria's rainy season has only just started and normally lasts around six months. The annual occurrence regularly kills hundreds of people. A lack of drainage, the construction of homes on waterways and the dumping of waste in drains and water channels all make the flooding worse. Flood awareness and alleviation in Nigeria To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video Nigeria suffered one of its worst disasters in decades in 2024, with flooding killing more than 1,200 people and displacing another 1.2 million. The flooding, which impacted 31 of the country's 36 states, also destroyed more than 1.4 million hectares (3.5 million acres) of farmland. Edited by: Wesley Dockery, Zac Crellin
DW
8 hours ago
- DW
Swiss communities on alert after massive landslide – DW – 05/30/2025
Residents in the Lötschental valley have been asked to prepare for evacuation. It comes after Wednesday's glacier collapse dumped millions of cubic meters of ice, rock and mud. A number of Alpine communities in Switzerland's Lötschental valley have been asked to be ready to evacuate their homes following a massive landslide on Wednesday. Rivers in the area have become swollen and have dammed up behind the rubble, rock and ice that thundered down into the valley after the Birch Glacier began to collapse in the southwestern canton of Valais. "We ask residents to make personal preparations so that they can leave their homes as quickly as possible," the municipalities of Steg-Hohtenn and Gampel-Bratsch in the Lötschental valley posted on their website late Thursday. There are heightened fears that a blocked river may dislodge a mass and impact communities downstream as this satellite image shows Image: Maxar Technologies/ASSOCIATED PRESS/picture alliance Man still missing after Wednesday's collapse Wednesday's collapse saw millions of cubic meters of ice, mud and rock engulf the village of Blatten and authorities have yet to locate a 64-year-old man who has not been seen since the collapse. Blatten's 300 residents were evacuated at short notice last week following an assessment by geologists that found that a landslide was imminent. Swiss glacier collapse partially destroys village of Blatten To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video Local authorities suspended the search for the missing man on Thursday afternoon, as conditions became too dangerous with warnings of further rockfalls. Rising water levels a concern The debris has blocked the course of the River Lonza and has caused a lake to form which in turn has heightened fears the mass could dislodge and impact communities further downstream. Stephane Ganzer, head of the security division for the Valais canton, told reporters that water levels have been rising by 80 centimeters (31.5 inches) an hour as a result of the blockage. The Swiss army has set up a base camp nearby and will assist with clear up operations Image: Tom Pham Van Suu/dpa/MAXPPP/picture alliance The army is on standby with water pumps and earth-moving machinery and will get to work once conditions improve. Edited by: Wesley Dockery
DW
a day ago
- DW
Switzerland: Flood risk after landslide engulfs village – DW – 05/29/2025
Authorities are using a drone with a thermal camera to search for the 64-year-old man. There are also concerns the debris from the glacier could cause the River Lonza flood other villages. A man remains missing on Thursday following a massive landslide that engulfed a village in southern Switzerland. The Birch glacier in Switzerland's southern Wallis region crumpled on Wednesday, with the resulting landslide of rock and ice sending plumes of dust skyward. It coated nearly the entirety of an Alpine village with mud, which authorities had evacuated last week as a precaution. Glaciers have lost around 10% of their volumes since 2022 due to climate change Image: Pomona Media/REUTERS The barrage largely destroyed the hamlet of Blatten, which had been home to 300 people. State Councilor Stephane Ganzer told Radio Television Suisse that 90% of the village was destroyed. The Cantonal Police of Valais said that a search and rescue operation was underway for the 64-year-old man, involving a drone with a thermal camera. Swiss glacier collapse partially destroys village of Blatten To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video Climate change causing significant impact to glaciers Swiss glaciers are severely impacted by climate change. In the years 2022 and 2023, they melted just as much as they had between 1960 and 1990, losing in total about 10 percent of their volume. Matthias Huss, head of the Glacier Monitoring in Switzerland (GLAMOS), pointed to the likely influence of climate change in loosening the rock mass in the permafrost zone, which triggered the glacier collapse and the subsequent landslide. "Unexpected things happen at places that we have not seen for hundreds of years, most probably due to climate change," he told Reuters. Concerns rising over blocked river Authorities declared a local state of emergency as they monitored the situation of the huge pile of glacier debris, stretching 2 kilometres (1.25 miles), blocked the River Lonza. "There is a serious risk of an ice jam that could flood the valley below," Antoine Jacquod, a military security official, told the Keystone-ATS news agency. "We're going to try to assess its dimensions." With the area too unstable to be approached, authorities indicated an assessment would be made during the late afternoon from the nearby village of Ferden. The deluge of mud, ice and debris blocked the River Lonza Image: Jean-Christophe Bott/KEYSTONE/dpa/picture alliance As a precaution, 16 people were evacuated late on Wednesday from two villages which are located downstream from the disaster area. An artificial dam was pre-emptively emptied to receive the water pushed back by the wall of ice, earth and rubble. Were that water to overflow from the dam, authorities would need to consider evacuating the valley. "The deposit ... is not very stable, and debris flow is possible within the deposit itself (which) makes any intervention in the disaster area impossible for the time being," cantonal authorities stated, adding there was risk on both sides of the valley. Residents shocked by scale of destruction Martin Henzen, a Blatten resident, told Reuters he was still trying to process what had occurred and did not want to speak for others in the village, saying only: "Most are calm, but they're obviously affected." He added that residents had been making preparations for some kind of natural disaster but "not for this scenario," referring to the scale of destruction. One man was reported missing after the landslide Image: Jean-Christophe Bott/KEYSTONE/dpa/picture alliance Up to 1 million cubic meters of water could be accumulating daily as a result of the debris damming up the river, and the buildings which have emerged intact from the landslide are now flooding. Authorities have been airlifting livestock out of the area, and Jonas Jeitziner, a local official from neighbouring Wiler, added: "Right now, the shock is so profound that one can't think about it yet." Edited by: Zac Crellin
