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Winnipeg Free Press
3 days ago
- Climate
- Winnipeg Free Press
Snow Lake residents get mandatory evacuation order; premier expresses ‘tremendous gratitude' to firefighters
Snow Lake residents have been ordered to leave the northern Manitoba community by noon Saturday due to an out-of-control wildfire that is burning in the region. The town of about 1,100 residents announced a mandatory evacuation order Friday. 'You must leave because of the danger to your health and safety,' a notice published on the town's Facebook page said. At least three fires have merged to become a massive blaze in Manitoba and Saskatchewan. Flin Flon, Sherridon and several other communities in both provinces were previously evacuated. (Manitoba Conservation) A state of local emergency and a 48-hour evacuation notice were previously declared. Mayor Ron Scott previously said a mandatory evacuation would be ordered if the fire moved closer to town. At least three fires have merged to become a massive blaze in Manitoba and Saskatchewan. Flin Flon, Sherridon and several other communities in both provinces were previously evacuated. In a Facebook post, the City of Flin Flon said the fire is about 140 kilometres long and five kilometres wide. The province said the fire was more than 307,000 hectares in Manitoba as of Thursday. A team of 260 people is trying to keep the fire out of Flin Flon and Creighton, just across the border in Saskatchewan. No structures had been destroyed in Flin Flon or Creighton as of Thursday night. 'Winds in the area are now blowing from the south, resulting in heavy smoke and fire moving towards the south side of Flin Flon,' the city said. Premier Wab Kinew saluted crews who are protecting communities, including Flin Flon and Sherridon, where teams have been holding flames back for more than a week. 'Hats off, and our tremendous gratitude to the firefighters — the local firefighters, Office of the Fire Commissioner, Wildfire Service — who've been battling these blazes,' he said at an unrelated event Friday. 'Just amazing work happening across the board, and it's happening because people are working together.' About 175 firefighters from across Canada and the U.S. have joined the fight. Mandatory evacuation orders are in place for at least 27 communities in Manitoba, resulting in the displacement of more than 18,000 residents. Many are staying with family or friends, or in hotel rooms. Hundreds of evacuees were flown to southern Ontario to stay in hotels there. Mandatory evacuation orders are in place for at least 27 communities in Manitoba, resulting in the displacement of more than 18,000 residents. More than 350 people were in congregate shelters as of Thursday. Provincial policy aims to get evacuees into hotel rooms rather than shelters, if they have nowhere else to stay. 'For those folks who are still in shelters, it's just a matter of matching them with rooms as they come online,' Kinew said. 'We're seeing about, over the past few days, maybe a couple hundred rooms become available per day.' Wednesdays Sent weekly from the heart of Turtle Island, an exploration of Indigenous voices, perspectives and experiences. A handful of northern communities have moved seniors and people with breathing or medical conditions to Winnipeg due to poor air quality. 'We just have to do a balancing act as new medical patients come in from northern Manitoba, because some communities continue to evacuate due to smoke,' Kinew said. 'We have to preserve some (hotel) rooms for people who have accessibility issues or really intense medical needs, while continuing to move people out of the congregate shelters. 'At this point, the big-picture challenge around rooms has largely been addressed, and it's now just about the daily balancing act of triaging people coming in and people who are already in shelters and matching them up with rooms.' — With files from Gabrielle Piché 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.
CTV News
4 days ago
- Climate
- CTV News
Voluntary evacuation order issued in Snow Lake, Manitoba, as smoke fills the air
Watch Snow Lake Mayor Ron Scott discusses the town's voluntary evacuation, the impact of heavy smoke, and where residents are heading for safety.
CBC
5 days ago
- Climate
- CBC
Snow Lake put on evacuation alert as northwestern Manitoba wildfire threatens town
The rapid growth of a massive wildfire in northwestern Manitoba has put yet another threatened community on alert. The Town of Snow Lake declared a local state of emergency on Tuesday and implemented an evacuation alert as a precaution, giving people a chance to get themselves and large belongings out before further restrictions kick in. "It's still about 20 kilometres away, but based on advice from [Manitoba] Conservation — they were actually quite surprised at the speed that these fires were moving — we decided to issue a 48-hour voluntary evacuation," Snow Lake Mayor Ron Scott said on Wednesday morning. "The situation is evolving fairly quickly and we may end up having to issue a mandatory evacuation order. Now that hasn't happened yet, but we want to give as many people the option of getting out of town with any big items as soon as possible." Snow Lake is about 120 kilometres directly east of Flin Flon but "due to the west and northwest winds, [the fire] has been pushed quite quickly over towards our area," shrouding the sky with smoke that's making the air thick and discoloured, Scott said. "The air is very, very smelly of smoke, but visibility is still fairly good this morning. It's just hour by hour at this point." For the first 24 hours of the evacuation alert, people who chose to leave were allowed to take pull-behind equipment such as trailers, boats and campers. Once the latter 24 hours of the alert started on Wednesday morning, that type of equipment was banned due to limited capacity on the roads, Scott said. There is no immediate threat to public safety, but everyone should be prepared in case conditions change and a mandatory evacuation becomes necessary, says a notice from the town issued Tuesday with the alert. "Ensure essential items are packed, vehicles are fuelled, and plans are in place," it says. Flin Flon, meanwhile, is struggling to feed its firefighters, Mayor George Fontaine said Wednesday. "They've been raiding the grocery stores … and they're within a couple of days of not being able to have enough food to provide to all these men," Fontaine said on CBC Manitoba's Information Radio. Some 200-250 personnel are fighting the fire, which has nearly surrounded the city but not yet breached it, he said. In addition to running low on supplies, the crew working to feed the firefighters is small and not trained for the job, although they're doing as much as they can, Fontaine said. "They're swamped, they're overworked, and there's not very many of them," he said. "We need a specialized team in there to do this, and we also need more food." The province is aware of the problem and hopefully can do something to help, he said. "I give them full credit for everything that they're trying to do." 'All depends on which way the wind blows': Flin Flon mayor A spokesperson for the province said there are no significant issues with preparing or supplying food for emergency responders and the Office of the Fire Commissioner has a logistics system in place to provide it to them. The fire near Flin Flon is nearly 38,000 hectares in size and remains out of control, according to Wednesday's fire bulletin from the province. A mandatory evacuation order continues for that city as well as Big Island Lake, Schist Lake, the Little Athapapuskow cottage area and Bakers Narrows. The fire is directly on the western edge of Creighton, Sask., which butts up against Flin Flon, which is partly in Saskatchewan. "And then it is in danger of approaching on several other sides, because it all depends on which way the wind blows," Fontaine said. Equipment has also been deployed to protect the airport and other structures at Bakers Narrows. No buildings in the city of Flin Flon have been lost, and the airport remains secure and operational for emergency aircraft, says a message on the City of Flin Flon's Facebook page, where regular updates are posted. Although no structures have been lost within Flin Flon or Creighton, Fontaine said he has heard of some being destroyed outside of the urban centres. However, he isn't able to confirm anything. "We don't have the capacity to be looking at individual properties and giving updates on that," he said. The Flin Flon fire joined earlier this week with one near Sherridon, which was itself more than 112,000 hectares in size as of Wednesday. They are now close to linking with the fire near Pukatawagan(Mathias Colomb Cree Nation), which is 9,785 hectares. A finger of the merged fires is reaching east to Kotowich Lake, about 30 kilometres north of Snow Lake. "[The voluntary evacuation] is giving people an opportunity to move now, and then if we do have to move to a mandatory evacuation, then there's fewer people in town to worry about," said Scott, who believes "several hundred" took advantage of the opportunity. The town has about 1,100 permanent residents but there is also a camp that houses 400-450 employees of the Hudbay Minerals mine. 2nd evacuation for some Snow Lake has also been hosting quite a few families who were evacuated from Flin Flon, said Scott, who estimated there were about 1,700 people in town before the evacuation alert was issued. "It's a strange situation. I've never seen a fire season like this before," he said about people like those from Flin Flon having to evacuate one place and then another. The HudBay mine on Wednesday sent out a news release saying it has suspended operations in Snow Lake and only essential personnel, authorized by emergency services, are staying behind to assist with emergency activities. Many of the employees have been spending time setting up sprinklers and other water systems in anticipation of the approaching fire, according to Scott.
CBC
5 days ago
- Climate
- CBC
Snow Lake put on evacuation alert as wildfires advance from northwestern Manitoba
The rapid growth of a massive wildfire in northwestern Manitoba has put yet another threatened community on alert. The Town of Snow Lake declared a local state of emergency on Tuesday and implemented an evacuation alert as a precaution, giving people a chance to get themselves and large belongings out before further restrictions kick in. "It's still about 20 kilometres away, but based on advice from [Manitoba] Conservation — they were actually quite surprised at the speed that these fires were moving — we decided to issue a 48-hour voluntary evacuation," Snow Lake Mayor Ron Scott said on Wednesday morning. "The situation is evolving fairly quickly and we may end up having to issue a mandatory evacuation order. Now that hasn't happened yet, but we want to give as many people the option of getting out of town with any big items as soon as possible." Snow Lake is about 120 kilometres directly east of Flin Flon but "due to the west and northwest winds, [the fire] has been pushed quite quickly over towards our area," shrouding the sky with smoke that's making the air thick and discoloured, Scott said. "The air is very, very smelly of smoke, but visibility is still fairly good this morning. It's just hour by hour at this point." For the first 24 hours of the evacuation alert, people who chose to leave were allowed to take pull-behind equipment such as trailers, boats and campers. Once the latter 24 hours of the alert started on Wednesday morning, that type of equipment was banned due to limited capacity on the roads, Scott said. There is no immediate threat to public safety, but everyone should be prepared in case conditions change and a mandatory evacuation becomes necessary, says a notice from the town issued Tuesday with the alert. "Ensure essential items are packed, vehicles are fuelled, and plans are in place," it says. The fire near Flin Flon was listed Tuesday as being 37,959 hectares and out of control. A mandatory evacuation order continues for that city as well as Big Island Lake, Schist Lake, the Little Athapapaskow cottage area and Bakers Narrows. That fire joined earlier this week with the one near Sherridon, which is 112,185 hectares and also out of control, and they are now close to linking with the one near Pukatawagan Cree Nation (Mathias Colomb), which is 9,785 hectares. "[The voluntary evacuation] is giving people an opportunity to move now, and then if we do have to move to a mandatory evacuation, then there's fewer people in town to worry about," said Scott, who believes "several hundred" took advantage of the opportunity. The town has about 1,100 permanent residents but there is also a camp that houses 400-450 employees of the Hudbay Minerals mine. Snow Lake has also been hosting quite a few families who were evacuated from Flin Flon, said Scott, who estimated there were about 1,700 people in town before the evacuation alert was issued. "It's a strange situation. I've never seen a fire season like this before," he said about people like those from Flin Flon having to evacuate one place and then another. The HudBay mine on Wednesday sent out a news release saying it has suspended operations in Snow Lake and only essential personnel, authorized by emergency services, are staying behind to assist with emergency activities. Many of the employees have been spending time setting up sprinklers and other water systems in anticipation of the approaching fire, according to Scott.
