Piney declares state of emergency, evacuations take place

A state of emergency has been declared for the RM of Piney as fires rage in the Badger-Carrick and St. Labre areas.

As of press time, the fire is burning 7.5 kilometers along Provincial Road 203 northwest of Badger to the train tracks in Carrick. PR 203 from Badger to Carrick is closed until further notice and evacuation orders are in place for the south side of Whitemouth Lake Road near Florze, from Rd 65E to Rd 68E. The hamlets of Carrick and St Labre have now been evacuated. Woodridge was ordered evacuated on Wednesday.

“Evacuations could go to Badger and parts of Florze have been evacuated as well in between the three hamlets,” said Reeve Wayne Anderson.

Anderson said dry conditions led to the forest fire which started along the train tracks on May 10. So far, the number of people who are displaced is unknown but 7,000 hectares of land was burning as of press time. The province has listed the fire as out of control.

“We have been fighting that fire (in Badger) for a number of days. We have heavy equipment actively working on that fire,” said Christine Stevens, assistant deputy minister of Manitoba emergency management organization.

Two helicopters are extinguishing flames and working in conjunction with heavy machinery which is focusing on creating fire guards to the west and southeast of the wildfire. The RM fire department will be setting up sprinklers along the homes that the fire is threatening. There have been two confirmed structure fires in the area.

“We are very much in a live response type of situation where we’re working to protect people, critical infrastructure, and property,” said Stevens.

People who are evacuating are advised to go to Piney where they are requested to sign in and state where they will be going and their contact information. For the people who are evacuating their homes, the province is providing emergency social supports through the RM of Piney.

“To all those in the St. Labre area who are under evacuation, and those families who own properties affected by the fires in the Whiteshell, you are in our thoughts and prayers,” said Provencher MP Ted Falk.

In terms of the financial disaster assistance program, the province is in the response phase right now and will be addressing that in the future.

Updates on the fire will be posted on the RM’s Facebook page.

During a press conference on Wednesday, the province advised there are 24 active fires burning in Manitoba with six of significant note that are requiring an active response. Some of the largest fires are located in Lac du Bonnet with 3,000 hectares burning and near Bird River by Nopiming Provincial Park where 100,000 hectares of forest is aflame. Six states of local emergencies have been declared in the province.

“In terms of the outlook, we are looking at obviously challenging conditions,” said Kristin Hayward, assistant deputy minister for conservation officer service and Manitoba wildfire service. “We have hot, hot weather right now. We have dry conditions. We have had some very windy days and we expect that to continue today and tomorrow.”

Temperatures in the Southeast have been in the low 30s and high 20s with rain expected at the end of the week, but Hayward said this might not be enough to extinguish the wildfires.

“We would need a good soaking rain, a couple of inches, a couple of days of rain to keep the humidity levels high. We want to keep those moist conditions happening, lower temperatures, those would all help our fire situation,” said Hayward.

“We’re not seeing a typical fire season anymore. Typically we wouldn’t be seeing this level of actively happening until later on in the summer…We are seeing that our seasons are starting a lot earlier. We’re out on the landscape fighting forest fires probably a month earlier than historically we would be used to,” said Hayward, noting Manitoba is one of the most active jurisdictions in Canada for complex wildfires at the moment.

La Broquerie

La Broquerie fire department has managed to contain a blaze that burned for eight hours on Monday afternoon.

Crews were called out to the small grass fire at 10:24 a.m. and were able to quickly extinguish the flames. The department received another call at 4:45 p.m. between roads 25N and PR 302 where it took eight hours to extinguish the 20-foot flames. About 750 acres of land was burned.

“The last people got home at 1 a.m. this morning,” said fire chief J.C. Normandeau.

Normandeau said the fire was called into the station after a resident smelled smoke. He saw a car drive away at a high rate of speed from the fire. Normandeau suspects it might be arson.

Luckily, there were no structure fires associated with the blaze as crews directed it away from any buildings, but it did cost the RM $25,000 to put out the flames.

There is a fire ban right now in the RM.

“People just need to be patient we’re almost over the heat wave,” said Normandeau. “Be patient and the fire ban will be lifted accordingly. Just be cautious out there and not play with fire.”