Nopiming wildfire along Manitoba-Ontario border growing, officials say
CBC News | Posted: May 8, 2016 12:06 AM | Last Updated: May 8, 2016
9 water bombers from Manitoba, Ontario continue to work on Nopiming Provincial Park fire
Wildfires burning along the Manitoba-Ontario border are growing worse, putting those who own homes and cottages in the area on edge.
As of Friday, the fire burning in Manitoba's Nopiming Provincial Park near Beresford Lake grew to 13,000 hectares. Twenty-five people were forced to flee the area along with six others in remote cottages.
At last word, a second fire burning near Caddy Lake covered 700 hectares.
With no access from the ground, nine water bombers from Manitoba and Ontario continue to work on the fires.
Susan Babynchuk is one of 25 people forced to leave their homes because of the Nopiming Provincial Park fire.
Officials put the word out to residents to leave on Friday night, and Babynchuk said about eight homes were affected by the evacuation order.
"Some left last night … and [officials] said like, you know, you need to be gone for a couple of hours, see what's going to happen with the fire," Babynchuk said on Saturday.
"So we went over to a cabin at Long Lake, which is about five miles down the road.… We stayed there for a few hours."
Around 11:30 p.m., Babynchuk returned to her home, but on Saturday morning, officials came back, telling her to leave.
As of Saturday, Ontario evacuation orders were still in place for Ingolf, Tannis and Gundy Lakes. Highway 312, which runs through Ingolf, was also closed due to poor visibility from smoke.