Hundreds of people have been forced out of a swath of cottage country in eastern Manitoba as a raging out-of-control wildfire near Lac du Bonnet quickly grew in intensity through the late afternoon and evening on Tuesday.
“Yesterday was a very dark day for our region here, certainly,” Loren Schinkel, reeve of the rural municipality of Lac du Bonnet, said Wednesday morning.
“Late last night, we extended the evacuation order for the seventh time because of the situation where the wind shifted. I would estimate that there’s 800 to 1,000 people that have been displaced from their residences as of last night.”
Cooler temperatures have moved into the province, but “we’re still not out of the woods here, so to speak, because the fire is still burning,” and there is concern the new winds, now coming from the north rather than the south, will push the flames back across Highway 313, he told CBC Manitoba Information Radio host Marcy Markusa.
“I have to commend all of the people that were out on the front lines trying to save properties throughout the night. The RCMP certainly were out there protecting life and/or property, and our front-line crews were out there trying to save properties as well,” Schinkel said.
There are no reports of injuries but there has been “significant loss of structures” around the Wendigo Beach area, he said.
“We’re still not certain of the amount of damage in those areas, but that assessment will be a process that’s ongoing today,” he said.
“It burned so quickly yesterday. The fire was jumping. It was a tough day.”
Updates on the fire are being posted on the rural municipality of Lac du Bonnet website.
John Fleming, emergency co-ordinator for the RM of Lac du Bonnet, posted a message on the organization’s Facebook page Wednesday morning, saying an assessment of properties affected by the fire will be done immediately in order to update everyone on the status of their properties.
“I ask for your patience as this is a large undertaking and we want to be accurate with our information sharing,” he wrote.
Electricity has been disrupted, with burned hydro poles and wires on the ground in some areas. That has to be fixed before anyone can go back.
The RCMP have sent additional officers to the Lac du Bonnet region to assist with evacuations, patrol evacuated areas and provide other supports required by local authorities, the Mounties said in a news release Tuesday night.
That includes a team of 12 highly trained officers from the search and rescue unit, the release said.
They have set up roadblocks along multiple points of Highway 313, with only emergency personnel allowed to pass.
Evacuation orders for the RM of Lac du Bonnet include:
Evacuees must report to the Lac du Bonnet community hall on McArthur Avenue in the town of Lac du Bonnet to register. Anyone who has left the area without registering is asked to call 204-345–2860 to register.
The fire has not yet been added to the province’s online fire map, which shows 22 other fires burning in the province, including another one near the Lac du Bonnet fire that has prompted evacuation orders and states of local emergency around Nopiming, Wallace Lake, South Atikaki and Manigotagan River provincial parks.
Evacuations have also been ordered in Whiteshell Provincial Park in response to an out-of-control wildfire along the Ontario border.
A mandatory evacuation in the Pointe du Bois area was also ordered on Tuesday.
Stephan Bouderlique was on his way Tuesday to Birds Hill, north of Winnipeg, when he found out his home at the corner of Highways 313 and 315 was in an evacuation zone.
“We couldn’t go back, so all I had was my clothes on my back [and] my bike, and my wife had left for an appointment in [Winnipeg], so she has nothing as well,” he said.
The couple is now staying in a hotel in Sekirk and keeping tabs on their house through security cameras they have set up around the property.
“Everything’s good, power’s still on. We’ll see about the winds today, but there is a little bit of concern as to how fast it’s going to track,” Bouderlique said.
“The only thing I’ve got going for me is that … the closest tree line is about 100 metres away, but Mother Nature is going to do what Mother Nature is going to do. I guess that’s the price you pay for living in paradise.”
The couple has owned the lakefront property since 2005 and has never experienced a threat like this.
“My biggest concern was either fire or tornado, but that’s about it. And well, fire has come true. So we’ll see how that goes,” Bouderlique said.
