Provincial investigators looking into the cause of this spring’s wildfire near Lynn Lake, Man., allege it started at the nearby Alamos Gold Inc. mining site and that the company was negligent because it didn’t use water to extinguish its burn piles, according to search warrant documents obtained by CBC News.
Manitoba Conservation investigators allege the fire, which eventually grew to over 85,000 hectares, started on May 7 after a burn pile reignited at the Toronto-based gold producer’s MacLellan mine site, about 7.5 kilometres northeast of Lynn Lake.
By late May, the fire had come within five kilometres of Lynn Lake and forced the evacuation of the nearly 600 residents of the town, which is roughly 800 kilometres northwest of Winnipeg. Dozens of properties in the area were destroyed.
Early estimates peg damage from the fire at around $10 million, and the cleanup has involved a “tremendous amount of work,” said Lynn Lake Mayor Brandon Dulewich, who also works as a firefighter with the local fire department.
“It’s a tough pill to swallow, knowing that it’s not something that just spontaneously happened,” Dulewich said in an Aug. 27 interview.
Lynn Lake residents were able to return for a brief period beginning in June, but a second unrelated fire forced them to evacuate again on July 5. As of Wednesday, they were still waiting for word on when Manitoba Hydro would restore the town’s power, allowing the evacuees to return.
“Most people haven’t even gotten out to see the destruction yet,” said Dulewich. “The whole community has been gone. They’ve lost their entire summer.”
The search warrant documents stem from an investigation by Manitoba Conservation into whether Alamos Gold violated the province’s Wildfires Act by starting a fire without taking “sufficient precautions” to ensure it could be kept under control.
A sergeant with Manitoba’s Conservation Officer Service filed the sworn affidavit on June 11 to gain access to reports, drone data and other evidence allegedly held by two other contractors working at the mine.
The sergeant travelled to Lynn Lake after the May 7 fire was reported, spoke to witnesses on the ground, viewed photos of the fire and examined evidence at the scene.
Alamos Gold staff told the investigators two fires started on May 7
