Winnipeg Free Press

Winnipeg Free Press (Newspaper) - August 6, 2024, Winnipeg, Manitoba When your need is hope Amazing things happen when you support St. Boniface Hospital Foundation. 204-237-2067 bealifeline.ca GIVE TODAY A MASSIVE wildfire has severed a remote First Nation’s only power supply, prompting the commun- ity’s chief to call for long-term support from the federal government. Early Saturday morning, Red Suck- er Lake Anisininew Nation declared a state of emergency after a 3,000-hec- tare wildfire burning west of the com- munity cut off its hydroelectricity, for- cing residents to flee south. As of Saturday afternoon, the area had no power or cellphone service. “We have no sense of communication to anybody, it’s a very large concern for our community,” Chief Samuel Knott said by phone. Officials set up a make- shift command centre in the commun- ity’s nursing station as it was the only building with working Wi-Fi. The state of emergency was called early in the morning to get as many members out of the First Nation, lo- cated approximately 700 km northeast of Winnipeg, as quickly as possible, Knott said. A news release declaring the emergency called on provincial and federal funding for backup generators, transportation and temporary housing amid the blaze. The Red Cross sent out 30 backup generators to aid in restoring power temporarily but Knott said the First Nation needs a permanent back-up gen- erator for when the community experi- ences future issues with transmission. Last winter, residents went without heat for a night after extreme weather knocked out the area’s power supply. “A lot of people got sick out of that be- cause of the cold, so that’s the kind of support that I need,” Knott said. The generators coming to the com- munity likely won’t be enough to power fridges and freezers, threatening food supply, the chief added. “Wild meat we harvest for special oc- casions, the things that we cannot buy at the store,” Knott said. “It will be a big impact.” Indigenous Services Canada spokes- person Jacinthe Goulet said the federal department has been in communica- tion with the First Nation and offered a payment to the community under the department’s Emergency Management Assistance Program. Supports provided through ISC and the Canadian Red Cross include gen- erators, accommodations, per diems, clothing allowances and health sup- ports for evacuees, Goulet said. On Saturday, Manitoba Hydro crews flew by helicopter to the area to assess the damage, spokesperson Riley Mc- Donald said. It is not yet known what caused the outage but the source is like- ly a power line near the fire that feeds into the community, the spokesperson added. Westerly winds are fuelling the fire and it is not yet known when residents can return home. Some residents with health concerns were evacuated earli- er this week due to smoke blanketing the First Nation and about 300 area residents have registered with the Red Cross so far, Knott said. Approximately 300 more residents have been identified as a priority to be evacuated. Last week, St. Theresa Point First Nation in the Island Lake region began evacuations of its vulnerable members as smoke from nearby wildfires con- tinues to be a health risk. The Canadian Red Cross said it had evacuated 152 people from the First Nation as of Fri- day. A full evacuation in Marcel Co- lomb First Nation sent more than 200 residents to Winnipeg, Thompson, the Pas and Lynn Lake last week. The province’s wildfire service first detected the fire near Red Sucker Lake on July 19 and it is still classified as out of control. As of Friday, the province recorded 70 active wildfires and 191 wildfires to date. — with files from the Canadian Press nicole.buffie@freepress.mb.ca TOP NEWS A3 TUESDAY AUGUST 6, 2024 ● ASSOCIATE EDITOR, NEWS: STACEY THIDRICKSON 204-697-7292 ● CITY.DESK@FREEPRESS.MB.CA ● WINNIPEGFREEPRESS.COM “He served Albertans with un- wavering bravery, and his loss is deeply felt,” he said in a post on X on Saturday. Smith said 563 people have regis- tered for the bus tours, with 62 people taking one of three buses that depart- ed Hinton and Edmonton on Monday. Residents aren’t allowed to get off the buses while in the town. When asked why Trudeau wasn’t planning to tour Jasper itself, Dean McDonald, an incident commander for Parks Canada, said the prime minister wanted to provide space for evacuated residents as they tour the area themselves. “We were getting a lot of folks (who) were evacuated in buses, getting in to see their homes for the first time,” he said. “That’s a pretty sensitive piece.” Parks Canada has said operators of critical services and critical retail, such as gas stations, grocery stores, pharmacies and schools, were also expected to visit their sites starting Monday for initial damage assess- ments. The agency explained the visits would help restart those services quickly, once conditions allow for residents to return safely. The fire risk across Alberta remained high to extreme over the weekend. Christie Tucker, a spokeswoman for Alberta Wildfire, told a provincial news conference on Monday that cool- er temperatures have meant wildfires across the province did not experi- ence significant growth. Parks Canada said in an emailed update Monday that the Jasper wild- fire is about 340 square kilometres in size, unchanged from a day earlier. Ellis said he spoke with the incident command centre about the Jasper fire. He was told there are concerns about warmer, drier weather in the forecast. Monday was cloudy, with a bit of rain. “That’s good. However, to say that’s going to put out a fire is certainly not something they’re anticipating,” he said. “They do have some concerns about the forecast ahead. I think it’s fore- casting some clearer, drier, warmer temperatures, so obviously they’re going to be prepared for that.” Parks Canada also said in its update that evacuees located in British Columbia were able to travel to Alberta on Monday on Highway 16, which runs through the national park. It said travelers were escorted by RCMP during scheduled times and were not allowed to stop along the way or go into the Jasper townsite. — The Canadian Press SUPPLIED PHOTO Red Sucker Lake Anisininew Nation declared a state of emergency Saturday after a wildfire burning west of the community severed the First Nation’s power supply. Wildfire cuts power, prompts First Nation to declare emergency NICOLE BUFFIE JASON FRANSON / THE CANADIAN PRESS Wildfire Incident Commander Landon Shepherd (third from left) and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau discuss the Jasper fire Monday. JASPER ● FROM A1 B.C. officials warn of dangers near river banks after landslide VANCOUVER — The B.C. government says it’s “extremely unsafe” to be near the banks of the Chilcotin and Fraser rivers both upstream and downstream from a massive landslide after water started flowing through the slide early Monday. Emergency Management Minister Bowinn Ma said Monday that the water breaching the dam caused by the slide will cause river bank instability, al- though the chances of a worst-case scen- ario are “decreasing.” Ma says people should stay away and off the waters as officials monitor the flow downstream of the slide, which may impact the Farewell Canyon Bridge, about 22 kilometres downstream. Evacuation alerts and orders along the rivers are not just about residential prop- erties, she said. “It is also about people recreating on the water or along the waterways,” Ma said at a briefing Monday. “We need people to leave those areas, to not put their boats down, to not go down to take a look at the water, to not engage in recreation activities anywhere along the Chilcotin River or the Fraser River right now.” Officials said about 15 properties in the Cariboo and Thomson River Region- al Districts are on evacuation order or alert. Connie Chapman with the province’s water management branch said the “pulse” of water from the dam breach will likely erode river banks and carry debris from the slide. She said the water started flowing through the debris slide, cutting about a 15 metre channel through the dam, and then began widening with water flows increasing by the hour. She said some places along the rivers will see higher than spring runoff lev- els and cause the rivers to swell down- stream in the coming days. Chapman said officials will be mon- itoring debris in the “big pulse of water” now flowing downstream from the site of the slide. An emergency alert issued by the province Monday said anyone along the banks of the rivers from Hanceville to the Fraser River, down to the Gang Ranch Road Bridge south of Williams Lake, must leave. Flooding and moving debris pose “a threat to human life,” the alert said. Images posted online by the province, and aerial footage over the slide site shared by Nathan Cullen, B.C.’s water and resource minister, show water get- ting through the massive slide. The provincial government estimates the landslide that dammed the river is 1,000 metres long, 600 metres wide and 30 metres deep. The Thompson-Nicola Regional Dis- trict said all private properties within 300 metres of the banks of the Fraser River are on evacuation alert, includ- ing four addressed properties adjacent to the river, two properties on Big Bar Road, one on Empire Valley-Big Bar Road and another on Watson Bar Road. The massive landslide last week at Far- well Canyon located about 22 kilometres south of Williams Lake dammed the Chilcotin River and created a lake about 11 kilometres long behind the slide. — The Canadian Press ;