A gargantuan fire, roughly two-thirds the size of Winnipeg, continues to burn near Flin Flon, Man.
Chief conservation officer Earl Simmons of the Manitoba Wildfire Service told media Monday afternoon that the blaze — covering an area about 42 kilometres long and 12 kilometres wide — has spread at a rate of about two kilometres an hour.
“I’ve been working in wildfire for 40 years… I’ve never seen a fire move like this fire moved,” Simmons said.
“It was driven by the wind. It started off north by Flin Flon… and went south towards Cranberry Portage, missing the community by about one kilometre.”
Simmons said the fire exploded in only a day from 35 hectares to 3,000 hectares.
About 50 firefighters from Ontario and Saskatchewan have been brought in to help battle the fire.