Wildfire smoke forces more air evacuations from northern Manitoba First Nations
Fires have prompted evacuations from 5 First Nations
Smoke from a wildfire burning out of control in northeastern Manitoba forced more vulnerable residents to evacuate from two First Nations communities on Tuesday, following earlier evacuations.
A partial evacuation began over the weekend at the Wasagamack First Nation in northern Manitoba after heavy smoke blanketed the community on Friday. Hundreds of people were forced to leave on Sunday and Monday, with a new round of evacuations bringing another 120 evacuees to Winnipeg on Tuesday. Heavy smoke first blanketed the community on Friday.
It is a story Chief Walter Harper didn't want to see again after a raging wildfire in 2017 stretched over 23,000 hectares reaching Wasagamack First Nation and forcing a full-scale evacuation of more than 2,000 residents.
"We don't want to live the life we lived in 2017," Harper said. "Everybody was running for their lives, and they were trying to go to the area where the boats were going back and forth. We were in the darkness, It almost looked like a tunnel."
"That was a devastating time," he said. "Members are in a panic and we don't want to see that again."
The community is only evacuating children, elders and residents with chronic illness, dialysis or respiratory problems at the moment.
"We're just being cautious," Harper said. "Some of the evacuees are very ill, they are the most impacted right now because of the smoke in the air."
Records from the Canadian Red Cross show 130 Wasagamack First Nation residents are registered at Winnipeg hotels. But getting the evacuees out of the community to begin their journey was challenging.
Wasagamack First Nation is inaccessible by roads and without a local airport, authorities first opted to evacuate residents using helicopters on Sunday. But the evacuation was taking longer than expected, Harper said. With the wildfire growing rapidly, residents began to be evacuated by boat to the nearest airport at Saint Mary's Island in Saint Bishop Point.
The chief said neither option is really safe for evacuees and that an airport in the community could have avoided the situation.
"We've been advocating for an airport for the longest time, 60 plus years," Harper said. "We need it right away, we don't need to wait around, we need it, especially with this evacuation."
Red Sucker First Nation continues evacuation
The wildfire has continued to grow rapidly, doubling in size over the past few days, fuelled by wind, drought conditions and the type of trees in the area, a provincial wildfire service official said. The fire, which was detected July 19, covered roughly 6,000 hectares as of Monday, according to the province's fire report.
Smoke from the wildfire also forced the evacuation of residents from two other First Nations in the region over the weekend: roughly 200 from God's Lake First Nation and at least 160 more from Red Sucker Lake Anisininew Nation.
Red Sucker Lake Anisininew Nation Chief Samuel Knott said about 40 more "priority residents," including newborns, their families and elders, will fly out of the community on Tuesday and travel more than 500 kilometres southwest to Winnipeg.
Gusting winds have continued to blow the thick mass of smoke over the community, forcing more residents with breathing issues and underlying health conditions to leave.
"The number is pretty high. We have a lot of people who have respiratory issues," Knott said.
"There was a slight panic for most of these [evacuated] people," he said. "It is pretty challenging because not everybody is in favour of leaving the community."
While the blaze is at least 40 kilometres away from Red Sucker Lake, Knott says the wildfire is approaching a hydro transmission line.
"If the fire reaches the transmission line, then the whole community will be without power," he said.
WATCH | First Nation wildfire evacuees in Winnipeg anxious to return home
The community has already been experiencing problems with its solar energy supply, and with no generators, a hydro disruption would leave it without power, said Knott.
A spokesperson for Manitoba Hydro said the wildfire is at least three kilometres from the distribution line.
The Crown utility said it is working with the province's wildfire services to keep the blaze from the wooden poles that carry the power lines. If the fire does damage the line, 275 customers from Red Sucker Lake Anisininew Nation would be affected, Hydro said.
"We're doing everything we can to prevent this from happening," the spokesperson said in an email.
But wildfires have already caused power outages. The province said a blaze passed underneath hydro lines "a few times" tripping power over the weekend in some communities. Chief Harper said Wasagamack First Nation was one of them.
"We were off hydro for 24 hours," he said. "It's starting to impact the well-being of our communities, especially the ones that are isolated, totally isolated."
5th First Nation evacuated
The Canadian Red Cross said it is now assisting in evacuations from five First Nation communities in Manitoba on Tuesday, up from four on Monday.
Residents with the "highest health concerns" from Manto Sipi Cree Nation began to evacuate on Tuesday, as wildfire smoke affects that northeastern community.
It's not yet clear how many community members have been evacuated.
Last week, a wildfire in northwestern Manitoba prompted the full-scale evacuation of Marcel Colomb First Nation, forcing hundreds to flee.
The majority of the evacuees in the province are being relocated to Winnipeg, with 720 evacuees registered at hotels in the city, according to the Red Cross.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
