Latest news with #Pukatawagan
CBC
10-06-2025
- Climate
- CBC
Choppers, dozers and railway workers: on the front lines of the Manitoba wildfire fight
Helicopter pilots, heavy machinery operators and railway workers are some of the people on the front lines of the Manitoba wildfire fight. Manitoba remains under a provincewide state of emergency as 29 wildfires continue to burn in the east, west and north, 10 of which are out of control. Those fires have forced 21,000 people from their homes and 27 communities are under mandatory evacuation order. Hundreds of unsung heroes, like Clifford Nabess, are working to contain the flames. Nabess and seven of his colleagues at the Keewatin Railway Company have been going in and out of the wildfires for days trying to save 16 train bridges that are essential for transporting people and goods to Pukatawagan, also known as Mathias Colomb Cree Nation and Sherridon, a small community north of The Pas, which is about 630 kilometres northwest of Winnipeg. " It's the only really lifeline besides the airport that gets to the community of Pukatawagan," Nabess said. Their job is to refuel water trucks that have been keeping the bridges from burning. He said sometimes the fire is so close he can feel it. " You can feel the heat right through the side of the windows. There's a few times we've drove through fire where it's actually raining fire on the window," said Nabess. He and his colleagues know their lives are in danger every time they go to work, but if they don't and a bridge burns down, it could take two months to repair. The Sherridon wildfire is out of control and more than 300,000 hectares big, according to the province. Nabess estimates between 80 and 100 kilometres of forest has been destroyed around the two remote Northern Manitoba communities. " It's very bad … for people that will come back to work later this year, it's gonna look totally different because there's nothing there." For miles and miles, all you can see is bare land and total destruction, he said. U.S. helicopter pilots offer air support Rob Brunken spent 22 years as part of the United States Marine Corps. After retiring, he got his pilot's licence and now works for Columbia Helicopters in Aurora, Oregon. When he and his colleagues heard Manitoba needed critical air support and manpower, they stepped up. "We kind of showed up … and have just been trying to help wherever we can," Brunken said on the tarmac at The Pas airport. Four pilots, eight mechanics and two helicopters equipped with 1,200-gallon water buckets, from Columbia Helicopters, arrived in The Pas on May 30 and were ready for deployment the following day. Brunken said they have been working non-stop, but smoke and poor visibility have been challenging. " This is one of the worst weather conditions that I've seen, said Brunken. "The smoke just lays in. You got some pretty heavy easterly winds and it's just been pushing, it's been fuelling the fire and it has been pushing our visibility to kind of a minimum," he said. Brunken said you can't put out a wildfire with a helicopter, but you can coach the flames toward ground crews who are ready to snuff them out. " We're not like seeing a bunch of flame and saying, 'Oh, let's go put that out'," said Brunken. " The ground crews are really what makes the big difference. So what we do is we kind of get instructions like, 'Hey, the fire's heading this way, can you guys kind of help coach it over to our ground crews?' And that's really what we're trying to do," he said. The helicopters also provide air support for heavy machine operators like Gary Lajambe. Dozers used to create fire guards Lajambe and his team use bulldozers to tear up the earth, and break up the treeline to try and prevent the fires from spreading. They call that a fire guard, or fire break. "You make a just like a road allowance and then when the fire gets there it's got to kind of stop. It's got no fuel," said Lajambe. He said the only time it goes over a fire guard is when there are strong winds that push the flames into nearby trees. Lajambe has never seen the forest this dry. He said normally in the spring there's a lot more moisture in the land. He said this year, when the bulldozers push the trees, dust comes off them. "I've really never seen much of that throughout the years. So it's dry, it's really dry," he said. Lajambe said unless Manitoba gets a lot of rain, there could be a lot more wildfires this summer and fall.
CTV News
09-06-2025
- CTV News
From flames to Falls: Canada's Indigenous wildfire evacuees take refuge in Niagara
Scores of wildfires have swept across Canada since the start of May, forcing more than 30,000 people to evacuate in three provinces. NIAGARA FALLS, Ont. — As wildfires engulfed Manitoba's remote north in late May, Joseph Garry, 63, fled the Mathias Colomb Cree Nation indigenous reserve, also known as Pukatawagan, on a helicopter. With other evacuees, he took three separate government flights before boarding a bus to find shelter in Niagara Falls, Canada's most popular tourist destination, some 2,000 kilometres from home. Scores of wildfires have swept across Canada since the start of May, forcing more than 30,000 people to evacuate in three provinces, spreading smoke into the U.S., and disrupting crude oil and mining production. Indigenous communities have been hit especially hard. Although First Nations people make up only around 5 per cent of Canada's population, they are among the most affected by this year's wildfires. Manitoba is struggling with its largest-ever fire evacuation effort. Early evacuees took shelter in community and sport centers in Winnipeg, but the province's cities are running out of space, forcing officials to turn to other locations such as Ontario's Niagara Falls, which has ample hotels. Around 2,000 evacuees from Manitoba and 500 from Northern Ontario are staying in four hotels in Niagara Falls, with more possibly arriving in coming days, according to Jo Zambito, chief of the Niagara Falls Fire Department. While the city is proud to help fellow Canadians during a crisis, Niagara Falls Mayor Jim Diodati urged the federal and provincial governments to consider alternative accommodations as peak tourism season approaches. Indigenous leaders in Manitoba have criticized both federal and provincial governments for inadequate communication and delays in delivering requested resources during the wildfire crisis, while Pukatawagan residents recounted a chaotic and frightening evacuation. Videos shared by residents with Reuters showed military and civilian helicopters buzzing back and forth over the remote community of roughly 3,000 people, landing on the school field as thick wildfire smoke enveloped the area and flames inched nearer, and dozens of people huddled inside a Chinook military helicopter. At one point, a pilot warned Garry and 100 others waiting to board that the fire was only half a kilometer away and being pushed closer by the wind. 'To tell you the truth, it's... It's scary. Not for myself, but for everybody else. Especially children,' Garry said, in tears while speaking at the hotel the federal government is housing him in. Garry, a manager at the local airfield, left all his belongings behind except for a few sets of clothing and was briefly separated from two of his daughters and their children. His 50-person extended family was later reunited in Niagara Falls. Vanessa Hart, 43, a stay-at-home mother from Pukatawagan who was evacuated to Niagara Falls, said that despite repeated pleas from their chief and council, help did not arrive for three to four days. She believes a faster evacuation could have prevented significant distress. 'They didn't come and help right away,' Hart said. Indigenous Services Canada, which managed the evacuation, said emergency response is a shared responsibility and first response is generally up to local authorities. 'The Government of Canada is working alongside First Nation partners, as well as provincial and territorial counterparts, and continues to closely monitor the rapidly evolving wildfire situation across the country,' the agency said in a statement. Manitoba's government said in an email that smoky conditions near Pukatawagan early in the emergency response prevented water bombers from providing vital air support. 'They (planes) were grounded for all fires in the air support has been used extensively in the north whenever and wherever possible,' it added. A date to return home for the evacuees in Niagara Falls is uncertain and depends on when plane and rail access are restored - possibly in one to two months. Wildfire response in First Nations communities has been 'pretty chaotic,' said Assembly of First Nations National Chief Cindy Woodhouse Nepinak. She called for more investment in basic infrastructure such as fire hydrants and fire trucks. 'We need more coordination. And we've been asking for it for decades,' she said. Article by Wa Lone, Kyaw Soe Oo. Additional reporting by Anna Mehler Paperny; Editing by Caroline Stauffer and Nia Williams.
CBC
04-06-2025
- Climate
- CBC
Watch as the northern Manitoba wildfires grow
Wildfires have been burning in northern Manitoba since late May, when a province-wide emergency was declared. Watch as CBC Weather Specialist Riley Laychuk tracks the fires threatening the communities of Flin Flon, Sherridon and Pukatawagan.
CTV News
04-06-2025
- General
- CTV News
‘Really tough situation': Manitoba Urban Search and Rescue describes Pukatawagan evacuation efforts
Several personnel involved with evacuating the northern First Nation community of Pukatawagan as a wildfire drew closer arrived in Winnipeg on Tuesday. 'When we were flying in, the smoke was so thick at times, it was black inside the helicopter,' said Bryan Preston, a member of Manitoba Urban Search and Rescue (CAN TF-4) and team lead of the Pukatawagan evacuation. Preston was among those who flew into Pukatawagan from Canadian Forces Base Winnipeg, saying that they helped evacuate about 2,500 people from the community. CAN TF-4 is one of six teams across the country that specializes in heavy urban search and rescue, according to Ryan Schenk, Manitoba's fire commissioner. The team is also involved with technical and specialty deployments. CAN TF-4 Members of CAN TF-4 on May 30, 2025. (Bryan Preston) 'The operation was about getting evacuees out, so coordinating with the pilots coming in and out, just making sure that everybody was at the evacuation centre,' said Stephanie Couturier, a member of CAN TF-4. 'We had names and information from everybody … So anybody that hadn't come to the evacuation centre, we were able to make contact with and make sure that they knew what was happening.' Preston said that 'the biggest problem would have been communication,' adding that the community faced a power outage, which prompted them to set up Starlink internet. 'But once we established all that, it went actually fairly smooth.' Pukatawagan, Manitoba Damage from a wildfire in Pukatawagan on May 31, 2025. (Eric Umpherville) Patrick Thiessen, another team member with CAN TF-4, said limited helicopters was another challenge. 'There were so many people to move,' he said. 'My role was landing zone team lead. So we were landing the heavy helicopters, the Chinooks, on the soccer field there and getting evacuees out like that.' CT-146 aircraft, CH-146 Griffon helicopters, and CH-147 Chinook helicopters were initially used to evacuate residents, according to Mike Gagne, the deputy fire commissioner for the province. He added that there was also 'fixed-wing aircraft' in addition to the 'largely helicopter support.' Aircraft flying in Pukatawagan on June 2, 2025 (Patrick Thiessen) Aircraft flying in Pukatawagan on June 2, 2025. (Patrick Thiessen) Preston said that once members from the Canadian Armed Forces arrived a few days later, they were able to move 'a lot of people from there on.' The provincial government said the Pukatawagan evacuation is now complete in a media release on Tuesday. The community was previously placed under an evacuation order on May 28. Wind headed straight into community: fire chief Eric Umpherville, fire chief for the northern community of Brochet, said that he arrived in Pukatawagan to fight the fires on May 31. 'We had a little bit of trouble with the wind,' he said. 'The first night that I was there was pretty bad. It was in a bad direction, coming straight into the community.' Fire fighters in Pukatawagan Firefighters in Pukatawagan on June 3, 2025. (Eric Umperville) Umpherville said he was assigned one of the fire trucks in Pukatawagan, which he operated with his team, '(putting) out hot spots all day long.' 'There (were) quite a few hot spots that were in the centre of the community, on the outskirts of it, and towards the airport.' Gagne said, 'The situation and scene have been stabilized,' adding that fire crews are ensuring that all the hot spots have been dealt with. He said some individuals remain in the community to provide security and maintain essential services, including ensuring that the water treatment plant continues to run. -With files from CTV's Joseph Bernacki
CBC
04-06-2025
- Climate
- CBC
Wildfires cause several CBC Manitoba transmission towers to lose power
Due to the ongoing wildfires, transmitters in Denare Beach, Island Falls, Pelican Narrows, and Pukatawagan have lost power. Lynn Lake is still on, and Flin Flon came back over the weekend. How to listen to CBC Radio One during service interruptions: CBC/Radio-Canada is committed to supporting our listeners through these issues to ensure they can continue to access important local and national CBC radio content.
