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Winnipeg Free Press
5 days ago
- General
- Winnipeg Free Press
Eight-hundred more fire evacuees expected to find refuge in Niagara Falls
Hundreds more wildfire evacuees were expected to fly to Ontario Tuesday, where a third-party organization has arranged for them to stay in hotel rooms. Xpera, a security and evacuation support service firm, had organized flights for 793 evacuees who are already staying in Niagara Falls, said Robert Garland, Xpera vice-president of emergency security management for Eastern Canada. As many as 800 additional evacuees could make the journey on Tuesday, Garland said. RUTH BONNEVILLE / FREE PRESS Darell Moore was evacuated from Norway House Saturday night. There was no hotel room for him when he arrived in Winnipeg. 'That all depends on whether, in Winnipeg, they can get the planes full or not. It's a situation of getting families to a marquee point and then on to planes,' he said. Niagara has become a destination for some of the 17,000 people, many of whom are from remote and northern communities, who have been displaced by wildfires. Hotels in southern Manitoba quickly filled up, and the Canadian Red Cross established emergency shelters in arenas and other large spaces. 'People with nowhere to stay outside of a congregate setting are definitely getting on planes and coming here to Niagara, and that frees up some of the beds in Winnipeg for some of the most vulnerable,' Garland said. The evacuees headed for Ontario are associated with Manitoba Keewatinowi Okimakanak, a northern Indigenous political entity that represents 26 First Nations, including five under mandatory evacuation orders: Pimicikamak (Cross Lake), Norway House Cree Nation, Mathias Colomb Cree Nation (Pukatawagan), Marcel Colomb First Nation (Black Sturgeon Falls) and Tataskweyak Cree Nation (Split Lake). York Factory First Nation (York Landing), another MKO community, evacuated vulnerable residents Monday, but is not subject to a mandatory order. Eight Niagara hotels have so far opened their doors to evacuees. Xpera is prepared to find accommodations for up to 3,000 people, but that number could change depending on the rapidly evolving situation, Garland said. After the Manitoba government reached out to Ontario for support, Xpera was tapped to arrange accommodations because it has a contract with Emergency Management Ontario, he said. Garland could not provide a price tag, but said it will be paid by the federal government through Indigenous Services Canada. Xpera is arranging recreation activities and security for evacuees. It is co-ordinating with health authorities from Ontario and Manitoba to provide health care, Garland said. 'So far, everything is running really smoothly.' Niagara, Ont., Mayor Jim Diodati said his city has opened its arms to Manitobans. 'Some of them, I'm sure, are nervous or stressed because they are getting uprooted from their homes and they're being taken thousands of miles away, but I'm hoping that the silver lining in the grey cloud is… they are going to get to take in one of the great natural attractions of the world,' he said. The city attracts as many as 14 million visitors each year who want to see the Niagara Falls. It has an inventory of more than 14,000 hotel rooms, which makes it a 'logical place for any situation where you need a lot of spots for people quickly.' RUTH BONNEVILLE / FREE PRESS Robert Burroughs of Flin Flon fled the northern city May 28 with only bare essentials. 'We are happy to do our part, especially initially,' he said. The tourism season kicks into high gear in Niagara around July 1. Diodati said he hopes the federal government can find alternative places to house evacuees before then because hotels will likely reach capacity. If the crisis extends into the summer, Diodati suggested post-secondary institutions throughout the country could be considered for temporary accommodation. Back in Manitoba, some evacuees were settling into hotels after spending time in emergency shelters. Talking about home brought Robert Burroughs to tears outside the Victoria Inn on Wellington Avenue. The Flin Flon resident was moved to the hotel after spending one night at the Century Arena in Fort Garry. 'I'm a very emotional guy,' he said softly. 'It's been very difficult.' Burroughs, an employee of the Victoria Inn in Flin Flon, fled the northern city May 28 with only bare essentials. He was part of a massive convoy that drove south as flames crept dangerously close to the city of about 5,100 people. He considers himself lucky because his general manager arranged rooms for him and roughly 30 other Victoria Inn employees from Flin Flon, who are staying at the chain's hotel in Winnipeg. 'Red Cross has been so busy we don't have any meal tickets,' he said. 'We are having to support ourselves. They say to keep our receipts. At first, they accepted our Red Cross cards, but now they need the meal tickets for the hotel to get paid by Red Cross.' Darell Moore was aboard one of the last planes out of Norway House on Monday night. No hotel room was waiting for him when he touched down in Winnipeg. 'I slept in my truck,' he said, describing a long night spent beside his seven-year-old dog, Buzy. Over the weekend, Moore's daughter, Darrylee McKay, loaded six children into her father's pickup and made the eight-hour drive south to Winnipeg. Among them were her three children, and kids who belong to her sister and niece. A second car that travelled with them carried four more children. 'We had to keep stopping, all the kids had to keep using the washroom,' McKay said. 'It was a hard drive.' RUTH BONNEVILLE / FREE PRESS A Cross Lake family first sought refuge in Norway House and then drove eight hours to Winnipeg to escape the fires. The children are very upset about their little dog Buzy not being able to stay with them in the hotel room. Buzy is being fostered. From left: Okay McKay, 10, Belinda McKay, 7, their grandmother Bernice Moore Suzie McKay, Darrylee McKay holding Jenson McKay, Demi Moore, holding Davair Ross-Moore, age 1. The family, from Cross Lake, had sought safety in Norway House after an evacuation order was issued. Once in Winnipeg, they spent their first night at a soccer complex on Leila Avenue that has been converted into a temporary shelter to house hundreds of evacuees. 'It was crazy,' she said. 'We had to stay next to a lot of people and sleep in cots. No sleep at all.' Still, she said, it was better than Norway House. 'I had to sleep in the truck with all of my babies,' she said. On Tuesday, Moore was trying to get a room at the same hotel where the rest of his family was staying. He said after he registered with the Red Cross Monday night, he was told it could take up to two days before he'd be placed in a hotel. Winnipeg Jets Game Days On Winnipeg Jets game days, hockey writers Mike McIntyre and Ken Wiebe send news, notes and quotes from the morning skate, as well as injury updates and lineup decisions. Arrives a few hours prior to puck drop. The Red Cross has refused to do an interview regarding the evacuation process and putting up people in hotels. The provincial government said evacuees who require enhanced accessibility or have medical needs are the first to get a room. It confirmed some rooms have been booked outside of the centralized process. Hundreds more hotel rooms are expected to become available in Manitoba over the coming days, the province said. — With files from Scott Billeck Tyler SearleReporter Tyler Searle is a multimedia producer who writes for the Free Press's city desk. A graduate of Red River College Polytechnic's creative communications program, he wrote for the Stonewall Teulon Tribune, Selkirk Record and Express Weekly News before joining the paper in 2022. Read more about Tyler. Every piece of reporting Tyler 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. 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Yahoo
6 days ago
- Climate
- Yahoo
Hotel spaces freed up in Winnipeg for wildfire evacuees, Alberta dealing with winds
WINNIPEG — Manitoba Premier Wab Kinew said Monday hotels in Winnipeg are opening up to thousands of evacuees who have fled their homes due to raging wildfires. Speaking ahead of the premiers' conference in Saskatoon, Kinew said some 1,000 hotel rooms are being made available for evacuees in the province's capital city. "Nobody wants to sleep on a cot for more than a day or two, even in an emergency," Kinew said. "We're connecting folks who need those enhanced accessibility supports first and then broadening it out to everybody else who needs help, too." More than 17,000 people have been displaced since last week, including all 5,000 residents of Flin Flon. Emergency centres were set up as available hotel rooms in cities have been scarce. Some residents from Pimicikamak Cree Nation, east of Flin Flon, were taken to a hotel in Niagara Falls, Ont., beginning Sunday. Around 600 members were expected Monday to make their way to Ontario. "This has been a harrowing experience for many of our people, but at the end of the day, it's all about saving lives. It's all about keeping people safe," said Manitoba Keewatinowi Okimakanak Grand Chief Garrison Settee. Efforts to get First Nations evacuees out of Manitoba are being spearheaded by Xpera, a firm offering various security and evacuation support services. Settee said the company is handling buses, flights and hotel accommodations. Robert Garland from Xpera said about 226 evacuees had arrived and planes carrying more were to land late Monday. He said the company could find accommodations for 3,000, but that number could change depending on the fire situation. "The hotel groups down here are definitely looking forward to pitching in and showing our friends from Manitoba the hospitality ... that Niagara has to offer," he said. 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 to evacuees. The fire threatening Flin Flon began a week ago across the boundary in Saskatchewan and has now grown to 400 square kilometres. Crews have said the fire has been contained to outside the community's perimeter highway. Residents were ordered out last Wednesday in an evacuation that Flin Flon local Derek Kemp called "immediate and hectic." A longtime musician, Kemp rounded up his guitars, amplifiers and a hard drive with 20 years' worth of music he couldn't leave behind. He watched the fire grow in the days leading up to the evacuation. "I just remember seeing a little bit of black smoke," he said in an interview. "And then the next day, when I woke up, it was just giant plumes of smoke." Now staying with family in Brandon, Man., Kemp said he might take some odd jobs to make some money and stay busy. On Sunday, he and about a hundred others from Flin Flon gathered at a Winnipeg park to spend time together. "(We) were all kind of just hanging out there," Kemp said. "At one point, they sang a song together." Manitoba reported 25 active wildfires Sunday, with 10 listed as out of control. Kinew said the support his province has received from other jurisdictions is appreciated, but noted Canada needs to scale up its firefighting capabilities. "As a nation, we're going to have to contend with future fire seasons being more and more like this," he said. "We could use every water bomber we can get our hands on.' In Saskatchewan and Alberta, thousands more people have been affected by wildfires ignited by hot, dry weather. Saskatchewan Premier Scott Moe said all of Canada has come together to help out the Prairie provinces. "Many others around this table are consistently reaching out to the three of us to offer resources," he said before the premiers' meeting. "And for that, we're very grateful." As of Monday, 18 fires were burning in Saskatchewan, with seven of them not contained. Evacuation orders were issued for northern areas, including Pelican Narrows, East Trout Lake and Peter Ballantyne Cree Nation. More than 8,000 Saskatchewan residents are out of their homes due to fires. Alberta Premier Danielle Smith said her province has seen nearly 5,000 people evacuated. There were 26 out-of-control fires in Alberta. The province has experienced shifting winds, so some fire crews sent elsewhere have been called home, Smith said. "With so many communities facing evacuation ... we've got to be able to respond in a way that is going to be rapid." This report by The Canadian Press was first published June 2, 2025. — With files from Lisa Johnson, Aaron Sousa and Jack Farrell in Edmonton Brittany Hobson, The Canadian Press Melden Sie sich an, um Ihr Portfolio aufzurufen.
