Latest news with #Pukatawagan
CBC
an hour ago
- General
- CBC
Manitoba First Nations evacuees find refuge in Niagara Falls, but new challenges await
Hundreds of First Nations wildfire evacuees have flown from Manitoba to Ontario this week as out-of-control wildfires rage and accommodations are spread thin at home, but a volunteer says many face new challenges as they navigate large cities for the first time. More than 17,000 people are being or have been evacuated from northern, western and eastern regions of the province, including all 5,000 residents of Flin Flon. Emergency centres were set up as available hotel rooms in cities have been scarce. Only a few dozen people, including firefighters and people caring for pets and maintaining security, remain in Mathias Colomb Cree Nation, also known as Pukatawagan, after the northern Manitoba community's last residents were evacuated, Coun. Kelly Linklater told CBC. Some residents from Pukatawagan and Pimicikamak, east of Flin Flon, were taken to a hotel in Niagara Falls, Ont., on Sunday. About 600 more residents were expected to make their way there Monday, said Manitoba Keewatinowi Okimakanak Grand Chief Garrison Settee. "This has been a harrowing experience for many of our people," he told reporters at a Monday afternoon news conference. "But at the end of the day, it's all about saving lives." Manitoba Premier Wab Kinew said on Monday that some 1,000 hotel rooms would be made available for evacuees. Settee said the evacuees who have made it to Niagara Falls were welcomed with food, accommodations and even co-ordinated recreational activities, but he claimed that hasn't been the case back home. "It's always been a situation where our people are left hanging outside buildings, and [without] enough personal hygiene products," Settee said. Niagara Falls Mayor Jim Diodati said the city welcomes millions of tourists each year, and can make room for wildfire evacuees. "We do have a lot of hotel rooms. We do have a lot of capacity," he told CBC News. Sagkeeng shelters more than 300 evacuees Sheena Garrick, a wellness worker for Pimicikamak and a volunteer supporting evacuees, said a chaotic evacuation process and lack of space in Winnipeg left many skeptical about whether things in Niagara Falls would actually be any better. "It was hard getting people out because they didn't want to leave — they thought they would come here and get the same treatment," she said. "It's pretty sad. It's hard for a lot of people. A lot of them never left the reserve, so just going to Winnipeg was traumatizing to them." Ashley Charlette, a wellness worker with Tataskweyak Cree Nation, also known as Split Lake, said her community is preparing to help evacuees in Niagara Falls navigate the city, and is working to establish health and safety protocols while residents are away. "There's lots of culture shock going on now," she said. On Sunday, more than 300 evacuees from Tataskweyak headed to Sagkeeng First Nation, about 100 kilometres northeast of Winnipeg. Sagkeeng Chief E.J. Fontaine said 360 cots were set up in the local arena for displaced Tataskweyak residents, who range from infants to elders. "They're happy to be able to get off the bus and be able to bunk down with their families," Fontaine said. The community sent school buses to collect the evacuees in The Pas, said Fontaine. It set up a food and water station and air-conditioned treatment centre, and is providing evacuees with clothing donations, baby formula and diapers. Sagkeeng has largely been covering the costs to bring Tataskweyak evacuees to safety, Fontaine said. "The costs are going to be considered later, but that's not our first consideration," he said.
CBC
6 hours ago
- General
- CBC
Wildfire evacuees, allowed to carry just 1 bag as they fled, in need of donations
Social Sharing Hundreds of wildfire evacuees who were allowed to carry only one bag with them as they scrambled to get out of northern Manitoba are in need of donations, as it could be weeks before they can go back home. Roughly 240 evacuees from Mathias Colomb Cree Nation, also known as Pukatawagan, have been sheltering at the Winnipeg Soccer Federation North complex on Leila Avenue, along with about 400 people from Pimicikamak Cree Nation. Thousands of people in both northern Manitoba communities were put under mandatory evacuation orders last week after separate out-of-control wildfires moved closer to the First Nations. Mary Sylvia Caribou, an emergency measures co-ordinator with Pukatawagan, said each evacuee was only allowed to bring one bag with them from their homes, and donations are needed. "There's lots of babies, and we need more stuff like socks, pampers and milk. We don't have much stuff for them," Caribou said. "There's a lot more kids than adults." A tent has been set up outside the complex where evacuees are staying and donations can be dropped off there. "Just come down, drop whatever. We're here all day," she said. The Manitoba Métis Federation is opening up a drop-off site for donations for evacuees at 25 Ray Marius Rd., in the Transcona Industrial Park area in Winnipeg. Meanwhile, the Canadian Red Cross has opened up a fundraiser for monetary donations that will be used to support evacuees and the communities hosting them. WATCH | Local Manitoba organizations collect donations to help fire victims: Local Manitoba organizations collect donations to help fire victims 3 days ago Duration 1:54 'I had no hope' Caribou was evacuated from Pukatawagan to Thompson last week with hundreds of other residents who had been relocated in southern Manitoba. "It was very hectic. It has been first-come, first-served," she said. "I've only had maybe three hours, four hours of rest since we left, so I am doing the best I can to help." Caribou said the accommodations for evacuees at the soccer complex are OK but there have been some challenges, including about three showers in each washroom that are being used by at least 600 people staying there. There are plans to move some of the evacuees from Winnipeg to Brandon, where there are more hotel spaces available for residents, said Caribou. That could happen as early as Monday, but they are waiting on instructions from Pukatawagan's chief and council. "I'm not leaving 'til everybody leaves and then I follow them wherever we're going to go," she said. Pukatawagan was evacuated in 1998 and 2022. During the last evacuation, Caribou said residents were out of the First Nation for five weeks. Now they are being told it might be approximately two months before they can come back. "There's still fire, but they are containing it," she said. "It rained the other day, so that was a good thing. We're praying for it." Eli Caribou, 17, and his family are some of the roughly 240 Pukatawagan evacuees staying at the soccer complex in Winnipeg, which is about 700 kilometres southeast from their home in the Cree Nation. He left Pukatawagan on Saturday after waiting for days to be airlifted, along with hundreds more who were stranded when heavy smoke closed the community's only airport last week and limited the evacuation to aircraft carrying between six to 13 people at a time. "I had no hope. I completely gave up," he said. "Helicopters were barely coming in and all fires were getting close." The evacuation ramped up during the weekend after the airport reopened and double-rotor helicopters from the Canadian Forces started carrying more residents out of the community. From his window seat in the helicopter, Eli Caribou said he had a view of smoke filling the sky in a mushroom cloud shape billowing from the fire burning on the ground. "I'm just glad we got out. I'm just hoping everyone else got out of the community and I hope the fires die down all around," he said.
CTV News
7 hours ago
- Climate
- CTV News
Hotel spaces freed up in Winnipeg for wildfire evacuees, Alberta dealing with winds
Helicopters are used to help evacuate people still in Pukatawagan on May 30, 2025. Helicopters are brought in to help with Pukatawagan evacuations Manitoba Premier Wab Kinew says hotels in Winnipeg are opening up to thousands of evacuees who have fled their homes due to raging wildfires. More than 17,000 people have been displaced in the past week, including all 5,000 residents of Flin Flon. People are seeking shelter in Brandon, The Pas and the province's capital. Manitoba is currently under a state of emergency due to the fires. Emergency centres have been set up to provide additional space as hotel rooms in cities have become scarce, but First Nations leaders have called on provincial and federal leaders to direct hotels to prioritize evacuees. Speaking ahead of the First Ministers' conference, Kinew said Monday some 1,000 hotel rooms would be made available for evacuees. 'Nobody wants to sleep on a cot for more than a day or two, even in an emergency situation,' Kinew told a news conference in Saskatoon. 'So we're connecting folks who need those enhanced accessibility supports first, and then broadening it out to everybody else who needs help, too.' Some residents from Pimicikamak Cree Nation were sent Sunday to a hotel in Niagara Falls, Ont. Higher courts in Manitoba and Saskatchewan were to meet this week in Winnipeg for a conference, but it was cancelled to make hotel spaces available for evacuees. Manitoba had 25 active wildfires as of Sunday, including eight considered out of control. Cooler temperatures and possible rain are expected to aid firefighters in battling wildfires, including the blaze burning quite close to Flin Flon. Fire crews have said the fire has been contained to outside its perimeter highway. City officials said Monday that the area experienced strong winds overnight, but there have been no structure losses. Kinew said the support Manitoba has received from other jurisdictions is appreciated, but noted Canada needs to scale up its firefighting capabilities as wildfire seasons look increasingly different each year. 'As a nation, we're going to have to contend will future fire seasons being more and more like this, which means scaling up our firefighting capability,' he said. 'We could use every water bomber we can get our hands on. We're going to need more water bombers in the future.' The Manitoba government has ordered new water bombers, but Kinew said it will be another five years before the province can get them. Thousands of others have been affected by wildfires in Saskatchewan and Alberta, ignited by hot, dry weather that has allowed some fires to grow and threaten communities. Saskatchewan Premier Scott Moe said all of Confederation has come together to help out the three Prairie provinces. 'Many others around this table are consistently reaching out to the three of us to offer resources,' he said. 'And for that, we're very grateful.' As of Monday, 18 fires are actively burning in Saskatchewan. Evacuation orders have been issued for many areas in the north, including Pelican Narrows, East Trout Lake and the Peter Ballantyne Cree Nation. Moe has said there will likely be many more evacuation orders over the next week. Meanwhile, Alberta Premier Danielle Smith said her province is experiencing shifting wind conditions -- similar to Saskatchewan and Manitoba -- and that some Alberta fire crews sent to other provinces have been called back home. Smith said her province has seen nearly 5,000 people evacuated. There are 26 out-of-control fires in Alberta. 'We are about to restart our emergency management committee of cabinet, because this is an indicator with so many communities facing evacuation that we've got to be able to respond in a way that is going to be rapid,' she said. Smith also pointed to her government's awareness campaign aimed at reducing human-caused wildfires, saying it brought them down to 57 per cent of fires from 67 per cent last year. She said she hopes the federal government will help other provinces to follow suit. -- With files from Lisa Johnson and Aaron Sousa in Edmonton. This report by The Canadian Press was first published June 2, 2025.
Chicago Tribune
12 hours ago
- Climate
- Chicago Tribune
Wildfires are raging in the Canadian prairies. Here's what to know.
TORONTO — Thousands of people have evacuated their homes across parts of the Canadian provinces of Saskatchewan and Manitoba, where officials have declared a state of emergency and crews are working to contain dozens of out-of-control wildfires. The smoke has spread to the Upper Midwest of the United States and is expected to last through the first few days of June as multiple rounds of smoke are set to blow south, Minnesota's Pollution Control Agency warned. The fires are intensifying, and two people were killed after a small town in Manitoba was engulfed in flames. Their deaths represented an ominous start to Canada's wildfire season, which usually runs from March until October. Here's what to know. Where are the wildfires burning? About 1.7 million acres have burned across Saskatchewan and Manitoba, according to the Canadian Interagency Forest Fire Centre. Manitoba's out-of-control wildfires are largely burning on its northwest border with Saskatchewan. In Saskatchewan, the fire activity is also mostly concentrated in the north. About 17,000 people were ordered to leave and more communities can expect the same in the coming days, said Wab Kinew, the premier of Manitoba. Evacuations across those sparsely populated rural regions in Manitoba, home to several First Nations reserves, were assisted by the Canadian armed forces in cases where conditions were more dangerous. But people in Manitoba's Mathias Colomb Cree Nation, also known as Pukatawagan, an Indigenous community of about 3,000 people, are raising the alarm as the evacuation drags on. The army is facing delays caused by smoky conditions, and about 2,000 people have not yet been able to leave. Thousands more residents fled 17 communities in Saskatchewan. The province has seen almost double the amount of wildfires so far this year, at 211, compared with its five-year average. Elsewhere in Canada, fire activity has struck the northeast region of British Columbia, parts of Alberta and northwest Ontario. Where is the smoke affecting air quality? In the Upper Midwest of the United States, Michigan, Wisconsin and Minnesota have issued air quality warnings as smoke from the prairie wildfires is dragged south by a cold front. Air quality has deteriorated as higher amounts of particulate, like soot, ash and dust, are trapped in the air and blown across thousands of miles. Officials warned residents to modify their outdoor activity, especially for higher risk groups, like children, older adults, pregnant people and those with heart or lung conditions. In 2023, fires from Quebec caused the skies across large parts of New York to turn an apocalyptic orange. So far, the prairie fires have blanketed some of the Midwest in a gray haze. What caused the fires? So far, 98 of Manitoba's 106 wildfires have been caused by people, government data shows. Four occurred naturally, probably as a result of lightning, and another four are under investigation. Lightning, which is more common when temperatures are higher, is usually the cause of wildfires that burn the most land. In 2023, scientists at Canada's natural resources department found that lightning sparked fires that burned 93% of the total wildfire area, and the remaining seven percent of the area burned from human causes. This year, so far, a majority of the wildfires burning in both provinces have been caused by humans, according to officials and government data, but their effect on the total area burned has not yet been determined. It's unclear how many of those were accidental. How is Canada responding? Mark Carney, Canada's prime minister, has convened an emergency response group to address the wildfires. The government has also promised to match donations to the Canadian Red Cross, lend military aid and provide other support. By this time last year, the Canadian government had hosted a wildfire briefing with senior public safety officials to lay out how it was mobilizing for the season, including funding plans to support international crews, train Indigenous firefighters and buy equipment. Will the wildfires get worse? Strong winds and a lack of rain in the forecast mean conditions are likely to get worse over the coming days, meteorologists warn. Nighttime typically provides a reprieve, as temperatures fall, but the overnight weather has remained hot and unrelenting. Climate change, researchers have found, is exacerbating those conditions. Both provinces have seen intense, above-average heat this spring. That, combined with a stationary high-pressure system in central Canada, which causes air to sink downward and dry out, has primed conditions, according to Climate Central, a nonprofit research group. Experts say June is critical for wildfire forecasting because that is when western Canada tends to receive most of its summer rainfall, which could partially determine the course of the rest of wildfire season. Eight firefighters were killed in 2023, Canada's worst wildfire season on record, but there were no civilian deaths. That year, 7,100 wildfires burned 37 million acres, an area larger than the size of England, according to the Canadian government. Scientists later called the wildfires the top carbon emitter of 2023. This article originally appeared in The New York Times.
Yahoo
a day ago
- General
- Yahoo
Military steps in to help airlift some Pukatawagan residents out of harm's way
Since an evacuation order was issued on Wednesday due to a wildfire affecting the Mathias Colomb Cree Nation, also known as Pukatawagan, thousands of people have been waiting to be flown out. Military aircraft flew residents out over the weekend to The Pas, Man., from where 120 evacuees were able to take a Via Rail train to Winnipeg on Sunday.
