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Winnipeg Free Press
4 days ago
- Climate
- Winnipeg Free Press
Firefighting help arrives from Quebec, more coming from U.S.; evacuees should expect to be away for weeks, Flin Flon mayor says
More than 150 firefighters from Quebec and the U.S. are joining the battle against massive wildfires raging in northern Manitoba, while some evacuees were warned they could be displaced for weeks. The Canadian Interagency Forest Fire Centre said 99 firefighters from the U.S. were being sent to Manitoba. Quebec's Forest Fire Protection Society said 60 wildland firefighters travelled to Manitoba Tuesday for a 14-day mission. Crews from the U.S. are expected to arrive this week, a Manitoba government spokesperson said. 'We place crews where and when they are needed, so those decisions will be made in real time,' the spokesperson wrote in an email. Local fire departments from across Manitoba have sent teams to the North to help protect areas such as Flin Flon. The City of Flin Flon said up to 250 personnel are fighting a fire that is on the community's doorstep. No structural losses have been reported so far. 'They're fighting fires right on the edge of town,' Mayor George Fontaine said. 'They're right in the thick of it. It's a very tight situation. It hasn't changed, and it will be for some time.' A mandatory evacuation of Flin Flon, home to about 5,000 people, was ordered May 28. Residents were told Wednesday to prepare for the possibility that it will be some time until it is safe for them to return. 'Weeks is a minimum,' said Fontaine, who is among the evacuees staying in Winnipeg. 'Please stay calm. Stay as comfortable as you can because you're going to be out of your community for a while.' Flin Flon's airport, which was evacuated, is still being used by emergency aircraft. Two fires are burning near Pimicikamak Cree Nation and Cross Lake. In a Facebook post, Pimicikamak Chief David Monias said one of the fires continues to jump from island to island. A Chinook helicopter has been dropping water on that fire, he said. A Canadian Armed Forces CC-130 Hercules picked up the area's final group of evacuees at Cross Lake's airport Tuesday and transported them to Winnipeg, Monias said. He said several people have chosen to remain behind despite a mandatory evacuation order. The Manitoba government has said about 17,000 people will be displaced by wildfires in the province. Many are staying with family or friends, or in hotels or shelters in places such as Winnipeg, Brandon, Portage la Prairie, Selkirk, The Pas and Thompson. The province said more than 14,300 people from more than 5,400 households had registered with the Canadian Red Cross as of Monday. Evacuees who haven't registered yet are encouraged to do so. The CAF said it has moved more than 3,800 people on evacuation flights since May 29. In addition to Cross Lake, a Hercules plane collected evacuees who had previously made their way to Norway House on Tuesday. CH-146 Griffon helicopters flew evacuees from Mathias Colomb First Nation (Pukatawagan) to The Pas. Chris KitchingReporter Chris Kitching is a general assignment reporter at the Free Press. He began his newspaper career in 2001, with stops in Winnipeg, Toronto and London, England, along the way. After returning to Winnipeg, he joined the Free Press in 2021, and now covers a little bit of everything for the newspaper. Read more about Chris. Every piece of reporting Chris produces is reviewed by an editing team before it is posted online or published in print — part of the Free Press's tradition, since 1872, of producing reliable independent journalism. Read more about Free Press's history and mandate, and learn how our newsroom operates. Our newsroom depends on a growing audience of readers to power our journalism. If you are not a paid reader, please consider becoming a subscriber. Our newsroom depends on its audience of readers to power our journalism. Thank you for your support.
Winnipeg Free Press
01-05-2025
- General
- Winnipeg Free Press
Spanish pilot missing after small plane crossing Atlantic crashes off Newfoundland
ST. JOHN'S – The search for a pilot whose small aircraft crashed in the Atlantic Ocean off the east coast of Newfoundland continued for a second day on Wednesday. The Transportation Safety Board of Canada says the single-engine Air Tractor AT-802 took off from St. John's International Airport with only the pilot aboard on Tuesday morning. A spokesman for the Joint Rescue Co-ordination Centre in Halifax says the centre received a signal from an emergency beacon around 9 a.m. Atlantic time. Lt.-Cmdr. Len Hickey says the signal came from an area 225 kilometres east of St. John's. He says two Canadian Coast Guard vessels and two fishing boats were dispatched to the scene to begin the search, and they were joined by a military CH-149 Cormorant search-and-rescue helicopter and a CC-130 Hercules fixed-wing aircraft. The searchers later found an oil slick, one of the amphibious plane's floats, as well as an empty orange life-raft and some other debris. Hickey said the transportation board confirmed the turboprop had been purchased in the United States by a man from Spain, whose flight plan included a stopover in St. John's before heading to the Azores, an island chain west of Portugal. During Elections Get campaign news, insight, analysis and commentary delivered to your inbox during Canada's 2025 election. The highly agile Air Tractor aircraft, which has a range of almost 1,000 kilometres, is primarily used for spraying agricultural crops. But it can also be used for aerial firefighting when equipped with floats. Typically, smaller aircraft do not have the range to complete a transatlantic flight, but they can be equipped with auxiliary fuel tanks to extend their flight time. 'He was working his way up the eastern seaboard with the last touch point in North America being St. John's before he crossed the Atlantic,' Hickey said in an interview. 'The Azores was listed in the flight plan as the destination.' Hickey said Wednesday the two fishing boats were released from the search later in the day, and he confirmed the search would continue until sundown. At that point if the pilot had not been found, the RCMP was expected to take on the case as a missing person file. This report by The Canadian Press was first published April 30, 2025.
