Manitoba wildfire evacuees feel 'relieved' and ready to go home Sunday – Winnipeg

It will soon be time for people displaced by the wildfires raging near Flin Flon, Man., to go home.

By Friday afternoon, the Manitoba Forest Fire Service said evacuees from Cranberry Portage, Sourdough Bay, Whitefish Lake, Twin Lakes and North Schist Lake cottage units were cleared to return home by 10 a.m. Sunday.

“There are big sprinklers that we drill into people's houses so they don't burn down. So this allows the team to put them all out,” said Earl Simmons, director of the Manitoba Forest Fire Service. “(It) also allows various municipalities and local authorities to plan for re-entry.”

It's been nearly a week since residents of the affected areas were evacuated, and evacuees like Dolly Charlotte of Cranberry Portage are ready to go back.

“I feel like I've been here a month, but it's only been a week. But that's what it feels like when you're exiled and you don't know. (It's) like a sigh of relief,” he said.

During the Cranberry evacuation, Charlotte moved to Paz with her son, grandson and dog to stay with her sister.

Although the fire is still burning 37,000 hectares, Simmons said he is confident residents will return home safely.

“I can tell you that we feel comfortable with the incident commander. This comes out of extreme caution. We feel comfortable making this decision. “If there was any danger, we wouldn't have made that call,” he said.

Plus, there's the bonus of rain expected in the region over the weekend.

“It's pretty dry out there,” Simmons said. “The fire is burning deep, which requires a lot of work from the firefighters. “They are digging two to three feet into the ground to put out the fire.”

He said the ground was so dry that even after the expected 40 millimeters of rain, “we're still going to have significant drought codes that we don't normally see earlier in the year.”

“We're not out of the woods yet in terms of fighting this fire,” Simmons said.

He noted that more than 200 personnel from Manitoba and at least 80 people from various provinces are fighting the flames.

Charlotte is pleased.

“They saved our city, they saved it,” he said with a laugh and a bright smile. “They went out of their way to keep her safe so we could go home early.”

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While there were expected challenges on his way back home, like broken refrigerators and the destruction surrounding his community, they paled in joy at going home again.

“I really enjoyed being here and seeing my sister. But at the same time, I'm very happy to go home now, because I'm sleeping on the floor with a sponge, because his beds are too soft and I like firmness, so. I really miss my bed. “I miss my bed more than anything,” he says.

He is grateful not only to be back home, but also to be alive.

“I've never seen the sky look like this – all black,” said Charlotte, recalling the smoke that hung in the cranberry air as she left.

“We are happy. I'm so glad it wasn't in the middle of the night when the security guards were missing… I'm so glad they were working and that they came and told me before I went to bed during the day. .”

Provincial wildfire evacuation re-entry guidance can be found at www.gov.mb.ca/emo. Evacuees are also encouraged to review the Wildfire Evacuation Checklist on that page.

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