The Manitoba Wildfire Service said it could be “days to weeks” before residents of Leaf Rapids, Man., can return home.
The northwestern town of approximately 350 people declared a local state of emergency and directed residents to evacuate due to a wildfire encroaching within eight kilometres of the town’s edge.
The blaze has been out of control for over two weeks and is more than 10,500 hectares in size, according to the province’s fire map.
Cailin Hodder, fire operations manager for the provincial wildfire service, said the town wasn’t in imminent danger until recently.
“Due to smoke and just sort of conditions in that area in the past few days, it was best for community members to leave,” she told 680 CJOB’s The Start, adding that strong northern winds over the weekend fed the fire.
Leaf Rapids resident John Bushby said he’s been ready to evacuate for some time now.
“There was ashes falling from the sky the other day,” he said.
Thompson, Man., some 217 kilometres away, set up temporary shelter for residents in its community centre with cots and meals for evacuees. The city is bussing in residents from the community, according to the Thompson Regional Community Centre’s Facebook page.
Hodder said that as water bombers and ground crews assist in the firefight, getting the fire under control is paramount to getting residents back in their homes.
“We want to make sure that we don’t see smoke as a risk, we want to make sure that our equipment and our crews are safe before people start returning home,” she said.
Elsewhere, the operations manager said small fires in remote areas remain a concern, as while they’re not directly impacting communities, the fire service doesn’t want to see them grow exponentially.
There are 43 fires currently burning across the province for a total of 147 blazes so far, which remains below average for this time of year, Hodder said.