Latest news with #LorenSchinkel
CBC
20-05-2025
- Climate
- CBC
Lac du Bonnet wildfire evacuees return but for many, 'their world has changed'
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.
CTV News
20-05-2025
- Climate
- CTV News
Hundreds return to Lac du Bonnet, some areas remain evacuated
Loren Schinkel, Reeve of RM of Lac du Bonnet, shares the latest on wildfires, evacuations, and how residents are being supported through the crisis.
CTV News
20-05-2025
- Climate
- CTV News
Wildfire update from Lac du Bonnet
Loren Schinkel, Reeve of RM of Lac du Bonnet, shares the latest on wildfires, evacuations, and how residents are being supported through the crisis.
CBC
19-05-2025
- Climate
- CBC
150 evacuees displaced by Lac du Bonnet wildfire returning home Sunday
Social Sharing About 150 people displaced by the Lac du Bonnet wildfire are allowed to return home, the rural municipality's reeve said on Sunday. The Rural Municipality of Lac du Bonnet issued an evacuation order on Tuesday, affecting about 1,000 residents. Two people were killed after getting trapped in the fire and dozens of homes have been destroyed. The fire is more than 4,000 hectares in size and is still out of control, the most recent fire status report from the province shows. About 850 residents who live north and east of this area are still under a mandatory evacuation order. "We really appreciate their patience. I can tell you that there's a lot of people still out there working to extinguish these hotspots," said Loren Schinkel, reeve for the rural municipality. Schinkel said residents' safety is the top priority as firefighters continue to battle the wildfire. "We're taking it day by day here," he said. Dry conditions return with cooler temperatures on the way As of Sunday evening, there were 14 wildfires burning across Manitoba, according to updated fire data from the province. David Phillips, a climatologist with Environment and Climate Change Canada, says rain that hit parts of southern Manitoba since Thursday has likely helped firefighting efforts across the province. While the rain was a "godsend," he said it's not enough to put out the fires. And he expects more dry weather to hit the province soon. "It doesn't look like we're going to get any decent weather from a rain point of view for the next week. It looks like a dry period right across the same area …" he said. However, seasonable temperatures from highs of 20 C and lows of 6 C will offer better firefighting conditions compared to the record-breaking heat recorded last week when some of the wildfires began. "Some good news, but not great news," Phillips said. B.C., Alberta firefighters join Nopiming park effort A provincial spokesperson told CBC News on Sunday that as many as 20 buildings near Beresford Lake were damaged in the wildfire burning at Nopiming Provincial Park. As of Sunday, that fire has been burning for six days, growing to more than 100,000 hectares in size, the most recent fire status report shows. It is still considered out of control. The province said 21 firefighters from British Columbia have joined the battle against the Nopiming fire, with 41 more to come from Alberta tomorrow. Timely rain keeps Ingolf fire from spreading: Ontario fire officer At the Ontario border, cool and damp conditions have helped firefighters tackle the Ingolf fire. Ontario's most recent fire data shows the wildfire is more than 30,000 hectares in size and is still out of control. But the recent rainfall means it hasn't grown since Thursday, said Ontario fire information officer Chris Marchand. "This wet weather has been very timely in terms of keeping the fire in place long enough for us to bring firefighting resources into the area," Marchand said. Officials there are in a "new phase" of their effort, shifting from defensive structural protection to offensive fire suppression now that it's safe enough to get near the fire perimeter, Marchand said. Marchand said nearly 100 firefighters from British Columbia were expected to join them this weekend.
Yahoo
18-05-2025
- General
- Yahoo
Emergency response to deadly Lac du Bonnet wildfire to be reviewed, reeve says
When Glennda Gould fled her home in Manitoba's wildfire-stricken Lac du Bonnet area this week, it wasn't because she'd gotten a notification telling her to evacuate — it was because the smoke had finally gotten so bad she felt like she couldn't stay any longer. Gould said she was aware of the nearby fire. Before she left, she was outside watering her lawn, trying to keep the ground wet enough to protect her home if the flames approached. But she thought she'd get some notice when the blaze was getting close enough to become a threat to her. "I was expecting, actually, someone to come to the door and say it was time to leave, or the phone to go off through the emergency notification service that we've subscribed to," Gould said. "It didn't happen." Gould says her experience raises concerns about whether the Rural Municipality of Lac du Bonnet's local emergency response let people know to evacuate quickly enough, and whether the provincial emergency notification system should have been used. "I think it's a learning opportunity," she told host Marcy Markusa in a Friday interview with CBC's Information Radio. "I think we rely far too much on things like Facebook and email, and not everybody has that…. I wasn't the only one who said that they didn't get a notification to evacuate." Loren Schinkel, the municipality's reeve, said the community posted alerts on social media, used the local emergency notification system Gould said she expected would alert her, and in some cases sent people door-to-door to issue evacuation orders. But Schinkel also noted just how quickly the Lac du Bonnet fire spread — and the fact that some areas in the community have poor cellphone reception. "So is that the fault? You know, I can't tell you that," he said Friday. "At the end of this, we're going to sit down and we're going to do a very thorough, fulsome review of what took place here. If we can do something better, by all means, we're all for that." The Lac du Bonnet fire — which as of Friday afternoon was estimated to be over 4,000 hectares in size — has turned deadly, taking the lives of a couple who reportedly got trapped at a family home in the municipality and were discovered on Wednesday morning. WATCH | Manitoba couple killed in wildfire identified: Schinkel said Friday the fire had been contained to the same boundaries that were established on Tuesday, when the blaze was first reported, and crews were dealing with hot spots to ensure it doesn't flare up again. Why no provincial emergency alert? When asked Thursday why Manitoba's emergency alert system — which sends alerts to radio, TV and cellphones —wasn't used to let people know about the wildfire evacuations, Premier Wab Kinew said using that tool "has been part of the discussion," but it wasn't ultimately employed because it wasn't part of the municipality's emergency plan. "When we talk about the response, we're talking about following a plan that has been set up and drilled and practised. And because of that prep work, we don't necessarily want to change, I guess, the M.O., unless there's a serious … call for that to happen," Kinew told reporters at a news conference. "So I can tell you that the idea of putting out an emergency alert was part of the discussions that we've had. But in the first instance, we go with the plan that's been drilled locally." Shelley Napier, managing director of Napier Emergency Consulting, said she thinks the premier's explanation makes a lot of sense — municipal governments are "very aware" of what's going on in their own communities, and it's not necessarily a great idea to have a higher level of government come in to overrule local plans, which are approved every year by the province, she said. "They are stringent plans. They are tested, they are exercised, they are updated every single year," said Napier, who was previously a regional emergency manager in Manitoba's Interlake area before retiring from a 33-year career with the provincial Emergency Management Organization. "There isn't a community that wants another level of government dictating stringent, 'you must do this, you must do that' [rules]. And the government doesn't work like that with the municipalities." While that alert system may not have been part of Lac du Bonnet's emergency plan, Reeve Schinkel said Friday he would be open to using "anything that benefits communication" in the future. "Our hearts go out to the people that feel that, you know, we've failed them," Schinkel told Markusa on Friday. "And if we can improve in some fashion, we'll certainly do that." Having a plan one thing — knowing it another Lac du Bonnet evacuee Michelle Potter said she tried to grab as many things as she could before leaving her home in the area this week, not knowing if it would still be standing when she was allowed to return. Potter said she soon realized just how ill-prepared she was for that kind of emergency. Her daughter, Emily Potter, was in a similar situation, and said she'd encourage people to have "a more extensive evacuation plan" than they did. WATCH | Lac du Bonnet residents recount evacuation as wildfire raged nearby: "I know that I didn't have any plans, and I think you need to be tapped in with your … local RM and your local town, and know what's going on at all times," Emily said on CBC News Network this week. "Nobody plans for something like this to happen, but you need to be able to get out quickly." Emergency consultant Napier said while it's important for communities to have solid plans, what's crucial is reviewing and practising those plans, so municipal staff and residents actually know what to do the moment they're thrust into an emergency. "An emergency plan is simply words on paper in a binder. It's not going to keep you safe," Napier said. "We can't predict when we're going to get another large-scale tornado. We can't predict when the weather is going to be like this, and it kicks up so hot. But I know this from my career in emergency management, that being prepared is going to save your life."
