Fires spark as flood fears lower in southern Manitoba

Warm, dry weather has helped keep the Red River from reaching feared flood levels, but it's brought a new problem — fires are sparking in southern Manitoba this week.

Firefighters near Vita, Man., fought a wildfire for the second day Friday while their peers in Virden watched for new blazes after fighting two fires Wednesday and Thursday.

Rural municipalities across southern Manitoba have started putting burn bans in place as dry conditions increase the likelihood of fires.

"It's extremely dry out there," said Lucie Maynard, chief administrative officer for the rural municipality of Stuartburn on the U.S. border.

"Please, nobody throw any cigarettes out or anything while they're travelling."

Firefighters fought a blaze 10 kilometres east and three kilometres south of Vita, which is about 95 kilometres southeast of Winnipeg.

It started in an area without road access around 2 p.m., RM of Stuartburn fire Chief Bob Fosty said.

"We had a huge brush fire, grass fire. The winds were from the northwest and they were fanning the flames pretty good," he said Friday.

"We worked at it all day yesterday. We were probably still there till midnight or so last night and we're back at it today."

Three buildings — a residence and two cottages — were threatened by the fire but no structures burned, Fosty said.

He's confident they'll get the fire under control Friday.

"We have some heavy equipment that's going to help us get into the area," he said. "It's some pretty rough terrain in there."

The fire started a couple of hours after the rural municipality put a burn ban in place.

"Conditions are really dry out here right now. Today it's a lot cooler, which is helping us, but nonetheless, it's still extremely dry," Fosty said.

Burn bans

More than 30 municipalities in Manitoba have put fire restrictions in place. You can check which areas have restrictions on the Province of Manitoba wildfire information site.

Chief Brad Yochim of the Wallace District Fire Department in Virden, Man., 270 kilometres west of Winnipeg, said they're still on alert as they wait for word of the fire ban to spread.

His firefighters were joined by two other fire departments to fight a blaze about eight kilometres east of town, just north of the Trans-Canada Highway, on Wednesday and Thursday. On Thursday afternoon, they fought a grass fire south of Virden.

The fire that started Wednesday was a controlled burn that got out of control and threatened three homes, he said.

"We were able to save all three homes and didn't lose any buildings, but lost a lot of ground and bush and that kind of stuff," he said.

The Thursday afternoon fire was caused by a hydro line arcing, Yochim said.

"Both of these fires [involved] a lot of walking through bush and carrying backpacks with, you know, 50 pounds of water on them and stuff, so it's very hard," he said.

Firefighters called RCMP to deal with traffic on the Trans-Canada during the Wednesday fire.

Smoke across the highway was a concern, but the people stopping along the road to watch and take photos also troubled Yochim.

"[People] don't need to be stopping on a major highway, taking pictures, causing accidents or whatever."

He hopes word of the burn ban spreads quickly.

"The first few days, until people hear that there's a fire ban, there's still a good chance of fires."

Firefighters are hoping for rain to deal with the dry conditions.

"Please don't start any fires until we get a nice good rain," Maynard said, but added that "may not help the flooding concerns afterwards."