Nisichawayasihk Cree Nation pauses evacuation as 'favourable winds' keep wildfire at bay

CBC

a day ago

Winds shifting in a positive direction have a northern Manitoba First Nation pausing its wildfire evacuation, meaning nearly a third of the community will stay put for now — though that could change if the outlook worsens again.
About 2,500 Nisichawayasihk Cree Nation residents were forced to leave over the weekend as wildfire threatened the only road into the community, located about 600 kilometres northwest of Winnipeg. Others were expecting to leave, but conditions have improved slightly and as a result evacuations have been paused.
"We're delaying the evacuation until further notice until we get more updates in terms of what's happening with the fires," NCN Chief Marcel Moody told CBC News on Tuesday. "The winds have shifted in our favour, and hopefully we get rain."
Moody said the decision was made late Monday afternoon after a briefing with provincial wildfire officials. The improved situation means the roughly 1,300 people on evacuation alert who remain in NCN can stay for now, said Moody.
He said many evacuees are in Winnipeg, where they'll remain for the time being.
"Right now the situation is a little bit better than Saturday and that's the reason why we evacuated our people starting Saturday, but the situation has improved but it could get worse very quickly too."
"It really depends on what's happening. Hopefully we want to get our people back as soon as possible, but for the most part I think we want to keep them there until we have the situation under control."
Manitoba is in the midst of its worst wildfire season in about three decades and remains under a provincewide state of emergency.
Manitoba's wildfire services map suggests there are at least two wildfires burning north of Nisichawayasihk, with one having grown to more than 46,000 hectares by Sunday.
Wildfires have produced one of the smokiest years on record in many parts of Manitoba. Much of the north and central parts of the province were under air quality warnings on Monday.
Moody said there is a fire guard set up in an area near NCN to help stop or slow the fire from creeping closer to the community.
"The risk has been minimized I think, but you never know," said Moody.
'"It's mostly the smoke that we're concerned about in our community ... We don't know [what] the long-term impacts of smoke is going to be on our people but I imagine it's not very good."