Winnipeg Free Press

Winnipeg Free Press (Newspaper) - May 24, 2025, Winnipeg, Manitoba 918 Grosvenor Ave. • 204.975.4605 Tues- Fri 10-6, Sat 10-5 exclusive to girl candy A10 ● WINNIPEGFREEPRESS.COM NEWS I LOCAL C OTTAGE owners and disaster pre- vention experts in Manitoba are urging governments to develop comprehensive wildfire management plans after a pair of devastating wild- fires. Close to 1,000 people were forced from their homes last week as a wild- fire near the Rural Municipality of Lac du Bonnet, spurred by dry, hot and windy conditions, burned nearby. The quick-moving fire, which is cur- rently being held, destroyed 28 homes and cottages and left two people dead. “The whole emergency plan for every municipality should be under a microscope review right now,” said Brad Wood, a Winnipeg firefighter whose cottage was destroyed. Wood was one of several residents allowed to return Wednesday to assess the damage. His cottage was among 18 homes destroyed on Wendigo Road. Rubbles of black, charred materials and singed trees overtook what used to be lush, green vegetation. “I’ve never seen fire devastation at that level,” Wood said. When Lianne Ross-Martin returned to her Wendigo Road cottage, it looked like a “wasteland.” “Wendigo Road is in my soul. I have been out there my entire life,” said Ross-Martin, who primarily lives in Winnipeg. “I don’t know what I am without a Wendigo Road.” Wood was at the cottage when word of the fires began to spread. A neigh- bour saw his truck and notified him of the impending fire. In less than 20 minutes, clear blue skies were filled with smoke, he recalled. Neither he nor Ross-Martin received notifications about the wildfires. Wood is calling on all levels of gov- ernment to work with local cottage owners to create or update emergency plans to mitigate wildfire danger. “We don’t really have any kind of public notification to teach or to give people any form of information or ac- cess to information,” he said. Since the evacuation, local officials have said they have been working to get timely information out to residents through various channels, mainly so- cial media. Gordon Campbell, president of the Lester Beach Association in the Rural Municipality of Alexander, said he and other members went to officials a few years ago to come up with a wildfire management plan as dry conditions made nearby forests vulnerable to fires. The group was looking for informa- tion on evacuation routes if there were wildfires, how people would be alert- ed, safety protocols and plans to main- tain forested areas. Progress has been slow, with some meetings taking place last year and this past spring, he said. “We’ve continued to push the rural municipality to develop this plan,” said Campbell. Parts of the municipality were evacuated last week as a colossal wild- fire near Nopiming Provincial Park burned. Some people were allowed home this week — provided residents signed up for the municipality’s alert system and were ready to leave within two hours if conditions changed. Campbell said he has seen the bene- fits of an alert system, but it can only work if everyone uses it. Rural areas are often dead zones for cellphone connectivity, making it challenging for critical alerts to come through. He said many municipalities are be- ing reactive instead of proactive. The Institute for Catastrophic Loss Reduction has been seeing movement from governments in British Columbia and Alberta. But the Toronto-based re- search centre said the uptick in being fire smart drops the farther east you go. “Until they have a loss in the com- munity, it’s not something they think about,” said managing director Glenn McGillivray. Climate research shows wildfires have become more prevalent in places where people live in the past 15 years, but loss of life among residents is rare, said McGillivray. He said communities should be built up in a way that makes them wildfire resilient, such as using fire-retardant materials when building homes. “We rely too much on voluntary actions,” he said. “We can no longer just rely on voluntary action — we have to embed this into the law.” — The Canadian Press SATURDAY, MAY 24, 2025 Cottagers call for wildfire management plans after fires Boaters reminded water bombers have right of way EMERGENCY officials in Lac du Bonnet and Bird River are warn- ing the public to stay out of the way of water bomber planes over the weekend, as the battle against wild- fires across the province continues. Anyone boating in the two areas, where two wildfires are burning, are being reminded that water bombers have the right of way on all bodies of water. “We understand it is the weekend and you want to be on the water like normal in your boat. But it is not normal. We have a major fire that water bombers are working,” reads a joint social media post from Lac du Bonnet’s emergency coordinator and Bird River fire chief. The officials said RCMP marine officers are in the area and will not tolerate “irresponsible dangerous boating activity,” which it said will be investigated as dangerous oper- ation of a vessel under shipping legislation. One of the fires, about a kilo- metre from Bird River, is burning about 105,000 hectares and is con- sidered out of control. Mandatory evacuation orders remain in place in Pointe du Bois, Nopiming Provincial Park and the Rural Municipality of Alexander, the provincial wildfire service said Friday. The Tanco Mine also remains evacuated and an evacuation order remains in place for Wallace Lake Cottage Association. Another fire, which is about six km from Lac du Bonnet, is burning around 4,000 hectares but is cur- rently being held. “The wildfires in eastern Mani- toba are large and complex,” the fire officials said. “Both (the fire) in the Nopiming area and (the fire) in the Whiteshell are expected to remain active through the weekend. Weather forecasts are not favourable with warm, dry conditions and no rain in the foreseeable future.” The RM of Lac du Bonnet has lift- ed evacuation orders, while evacu- ation orders in parts of the RM of Alexander have been lifted, includ- ing in all of Pinawa Bay, Sunset Bay, Poplar Bay Road and Poplar Bay Provincial Park Campground. Road access may still be restricted. Another fire of about 32,000 hec- tares, which sparked near Ingolf, Ont., is also being suppressed, al- lowing parts of Whiteshell Provin- cial Park to reopen. The wildfire service warned more work is need- ed before additional reopenings can begin. Fires are also burning near Opas- kwayak Cree Nation and The Pas, Cranberry Portage, Sherridon, the Town of Lynn Lake and Cross Lake. All fires, including campfires in pits and charcoal barbecues, are banned at all times in every prov- incial park. Fireworks and sky lan- terns are also prohibited. The province has called in re- sources from other jurisdictions to help. A fleet of water bombers from Alberta and 58 firefighters from that province are in Manitoba, as are 41 firefighters and 500 sprink- ler systems from British Columbia. Federal Parks Canada has supplied 19 firefighters. In Winnipeg, city firefighters had to douse two grass fires on Wednes- day. Firefighters were sent to the 300 block of Cree Crescent in the Mur- ray Industrial Park at about 5:55 p.m. and saw that nearby homes were in the path of a fire. Crews had the fire under control by 8 p.m. Earlier, crews were sent to a grass fire near the 1800 block of Wabasha Street at 2:18 p.m. and declared the blaze under control by 3:44 p.m., the Winnipeg Fire Para- medic Service said. The wildfire was the second in Transcona in a little more than a week. On May 12, a fire damaged prop- erties along Gunn Road, less than two kilometres to the north of the Wabasha fire. Fire crews have responded to more than 300 grass fires within city limits in 2024. A two-week fire ban within Win- nipeg expired Monday evening. fpcity@freepress.mb.ca LIANNE ROSS-MARTIN PHOTO What remains of Lianne Ross-Martin’s cottage in the RM of Lac du Bonnet after a wildfire destroyed homes on Wendigo Road. Corrosive liquid leak leads to strip mall evacuation A strip mall was evacuated as a hazard- ous materials team spent hours dealing with leaking barrels of corrosive liquid Wednesday. Crews were sent to a commercial building on the first 100 block of Bentall Street in the Inkster Industrial Park at 5:10 p.m. and extinguished a fire. Firefighters found the two leaking barrels, left the building and called for the hazmat team. A nearby building and the strip mall were evacuated as a precaution. The hazmat team used an absorbent mix- ture to contain the spill, then put it in barrels. All the buildings were safe to reent- er by 10 p.m., the Winnipeg Fire Para- medic Service said in a news release. On Thursday, crews were sent to a house fire on the 500 block of Ottawa Avenue at 5:41 p.m. and declared the fire under control at 6:28 p.m. Earlier that day, one person was taken to hospital in stable condition after a house fire in St. James. Crews were sent to a bungalow on the 200 block of Roseberry Street at 1:45 p.m. and declared the fire under control at 2:49 p.m. Paramedics assessed a total of four people. Earlier Thursday, at 12:21 p.m., crews were sent to a vacant house on the 700 block of Pritchard Avenue and declared the fire under control at 12:48 p.m. That morning, at 6:44 a.m., crews were sent to a house on the 600 block of Toronto Street and fought the blaze for hours, declaring the fire under control at 10:04 a.m. On Wednesday, one person was taken to hospital in unstable condition after a fire on Chudley Street. Crews were sent to the two-storey townhouse on the first 100 block at 10:44 a.m. and declared the fire under control at 11:27 a.m. Every- one got out of the house before fire- fighters arrived. BRITTANY HOBSON ;