Evacuees arrive in Winnipeg as wildfires force thousands out, bring smoke advisories
More than 3,000 residents were being airlifted out of Garden Hill First Nation, 480 kilometres north of Winnipeg, ahead of out-of-control fires.
Misty Harper said she left Garden Hill with her five children and husband Thursday morning. They spent up to nine hours at an airport before they got on a smaller plane to Winnipeg.
'All the kids were getting tired and moody. Everybody was getting hungry, so it was really stressful,' she said about the journey to a Winnipeg recreation centre that is housing wildfire evacuees.
She said Friday at around noon local time that all of her children except her one-year-old were still sleeping on cots. 'It's been rough,' she said.
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She said she was still waiting for more information on whether hotel rooms were available for her family to stay in until it's safe for them to return home.
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Manitoba is under a provincewide state of emergency as wildfires continue to rage, forcing even more evacuations out of northern communities.
The government declared the order Thursday, for the second time this year, and with the latest round of fires and evacuations, the province reported more than one million hectares burned — more than 10 times the average over the last 20 years.
In total, about 12,600 people are out of their homes in Manitoba. The government gave notice that it intends to use Winnipeg's major convention centre to house evacuees.
The military stepped in Wednesday evening with a large Hercules transport plane to fly people out of Garden Hill as fires approached. It's a fly-in community not accessible by road.
Snow Lake, a town 600 kilometres northwest of Winnipeg, also issued a mandatory evacuation order for its 1,000 residents.
The town's Mayor Ron Scott says he was planning to leave early Friday afternoon. 'Everyone that needs to be out is gone now,' he said.
He said a wildfire was about six kilometres away from the town's doorsteps as of Friday morning. 'It's a bit of a guessing game right now.'
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Environment Canada has issued air quality warnings and advisories for much of the province, including Winnipeg. Some people, including seniors and those with heart and lung issues, are at greater risk due to air pollution.
In Saskatchewan, crews worked frantically Friday to save buildings in the evacuated village of Beauval, 340 kilometres north of Saskatoon. The emergency operations centre reported the canteen at the recreation grounds had been levelled.
The fires also cut road access to the community of Patuanak, which is north of Beauval and home to about 700 residents. High priority cases, including seniors and young children and those with medical issues were being airlifted out.
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