The Manitoba Wildfire Service, the Office of the Fire Commissioner (OFC), Emergency Management Organization (EMO) and the Manitoba Fire Service are currently responding to two fires of concern in the area around Flin Flon and The Pas. There is extreme fire behaviour in the area due to drought conditions and high winds. Evacuation orders have been issued for a number of homes and cottages in the area and people in the surrounding area are being asked to be prepared to leave if the situation worsens.
The fire WE010 near Flin Flon has now grown to approximately 35,000 hectares in windy conditions and extreme fire activity. The fire is 38 km long and 12 km wide and has moved to within one kilometer of Cranberry Portage. There are intermittent power outages in the area and Provincial Trunk Highway (PTH) 10 is closed just south of Cranberry Portage in the south and at Baker’s Narrows in north. As a result, access to the Sherridon Road is impacted. The fire also crossed a section of railway in the area, and while no trains are affected it could disrupt rail travel between Cranberry Portage and Pukatawagan. Air tankers from Manitoba and Saskatchewan have been working on the fire and additional crews from Ontario are expected to arrive in a day or two.
Fire WE011 near Wanless, north of The Pas is now approximately 1,500 hectares and crews are working to protect the hydro line between The Pas and Cranberry Portage.
The community of Cranberry Portage began the process of evacuating to The Pas last night and provincial Emergency Social Services is available to residents. The Rural Municipality of Kelsey has established a reception centre at the Wescana Inn to register evacuees and to arrange for accommodations. Approximately 500 residents are affected at this time, but that number may increase as conditions change.
A reception centre has been established at the Victoria Inn in Flin Flon to support evacuees and assist with accommodations for residents affected by evacuation orders from the following areas:
- Sourdough Bay subdivision;
- Twin Lakes Cottage subdivision;
- Whitefish Lake Cottage subdivision;
- Schist Lake North Cottage subdivision;
- Bakers Cottage subdivision; and
- Bakers Narrows Provincial Park.
There is a communication outage impacting Flin Flon, Sherridon and Sourdough Bay between Flin Flon and Cranberry Portage. This includes P25, wireless, wireline, data, internet, and internet protocol television (IPTV). Communication remains available in Creighton, SK west of Flin Flon. There are confirmed power outages in all of the above areas and Manitoba Hydro is working to identify damaged infrastructure.
Further details, updates, restrictions and other important wildfire information is available at gov.mb.ca. To report a wildfire, call 911 or the TIP line (toll-free) at 1-800-782-0076.
