Manitoba locales prepare to welcome wildfire evacuees back, but threat remains
As Manitoba continues battling out-of-control wildfires that have forced thousands of people out of their homes, some northern communities are making plans to allow people to start coming back — but for most, it will still take some time before that actually happens.
One exception is the community of Cranberry Portage, in the rural municipality of Kelsey, about 600 kilometres northwest of Winnipeg.
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The RM announced on its Facebook page Wednesday afternoon Cranberry Portage residents forced to leave because of a mandatory evacuation order would be allowed to start coming back starting Saturday at 8 a.m.
The post said "a re-entry plan has been established" for the residents, based on advice from the incident command centre looking after wildfires. It encouraged residents to stock up on groceries before coming home.
"Hydro and telephone are functioning as normal, and water/sewer testing has been done to ensure the safety of water for consumption and use," the post said.
Meanwhile, the nearby city of Flin Flon is working on a re-entry plan that will depend on conditions, including the state of a massive out-of-control wildfire near the community, as well as the availability of hospital and safety services like police and fire response, Deputy Mayor Alison Dallas-Funk said in a post Tuesday.
"We can't bring community back if we don't have safety services. All the safety services right now are currently being directed towards fighting fires," including firefighters, RCMP and emergency medical personnel, Dallas-Funk said in a video posted on Facebook.
"We currently don't even have a hospital right now."
The fire near Flin Flon is the largest burning in Manitoba, at roughly 308,000 hectares as of Wednesday, when there were 25 active wildfires burning in Manitoba, several of them out of control. Currently, 27 Manitoba communities are under mandatory evacuation orders, with 21,000 people forced from their homes registered with the Canadian Red Cross.
Flin Flon Mayor George Fontaine on Wednesday called it a good sign the city is starting to make plans for re-entry, but it's still "absolutely not safe all around us" for people to come back just yet.
Manitoba wildfire boundaries. (Canadian Wildland Fire Information System (Graeme Bruce/CBC))
Fontaine hopes the update gives evacuees hope and reminds them that they haven't been forgotten.
"They're not just, you know, languishing out there with nobody thinking about them," he said.
Grocery stores, gas stations and social services are also among the things that should be ready to serve people before residents come back, he said.
The community of Sherridon, about 65 kilometres northeast of Flin Flon, is also working to assess any damage to the 80-kilometre gravel road that's the only way in and out of the area, Deputy Mayor Sheryl Matheson said Wednesday, adding she hopes to get a clearer picture of re-entry plans soon.
"They're looking at, 'Did the fire cause damage to the culverts? Did the fire drop trees on the road? Is there hot spots that are still going to come back over the road?'" Matheson said, adding a fire guard set up on the southeast side of the community is now allowing fire crews in the area "to stand down a little bit."
Fire near Flin Flon, Man., May 2025. (Government of Manitoba via CBC)
"We're not going to put anybody into a situation that we have to re-evacuate…. We want to make sure we're going home and that it's safe to do so, and that there is resources available."
In a Facebook post Wednesday afternoon, Pimicikamak Cree Nation Chief David Monias said his community, about 530 kilometres north of Winnipeg, is also discussing when it will be safe for evacuees to come home, but no official return date had been set.
Snow Lake plans
The town of Snow Lake is also looking at plans to get people back home, though there's no specific timeline there either.
Municipal emergency co-ordinator Jodi Cockle said Wednesday that the community, which was evacuated because of the same massive fire that threatened Flin Flon, has now been deemed to be under no threat from that blaze.
"We have to ensure the safety of the residents before I can deem to return them back to community," Cockle said.
"So we'll be working closely with those agencies over the next few days here to make sure that everybody's ramped up and ready to go back to regular living here in Snow Lake."
A return to community checklist provided through Manitoba's Emergency Management Organization details essentials that need to be in place before people can go home, Cockle said.
The town was evacuated — forcing more than 1,000 people from their homes — largely due to heavy wildfire smoke affecting air quality and the threat of the community losing its escape routes, she said.
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While an update from the town on Tuesday said the fire was roughly 30 kilometres from the townsite, a small amount of rain recently helped push that fire down, giving people in Snow Lake "what we needed," Cockle said.
Lynn Lake, Kelsey still fighting fires
Other communities are still mainly focused on fighting fires.
Near the northern town of Lynn Lake, for example, crews are working along the edge of a fire that's grown to over 71,000 hectares to eliminate hot spots and reduce risk, an update posted on the town's Facebook page said Tuesday.
The fire continues to pose a threat to the community, and warmer weather forecast for near the end of the week could make fire danger in the area even worse, the update said.
A mandatory evacuation order is still in place for the town. Road access into the community has been restricted and RCMP have established a manned blockade at the Black Sturgeon Falls turnoff to enforce the evacuation order.
However, Manitoba Hydro crews are scheduled to be in the community this week to start replacing infrastructure that was damaged or compromised during the wildfire fight, work the update said "will support essential power restoration efforts and help prepare for eventual re-entry."
Meanwhile, the rural municipality of Kelsey also provided updates Wednesday morning on the status of two fires burning in the area — including the massive blaze near Flin Flon, which the municipality's latest update said is stable as ground crews make progress.
Twenty more firefighters were expected to arrive Wednesday to help with those efforts, while the Manitoba Wildfire Service will do aerial scans to identify hot spots, the update posted on the municipality's Facebook page said.
Another fire burning south of the Flin Flon area had reached 4,921 hectares in size as of Wednesday. A fire break on the southeastern side has been completed in areas accessible to heavy equipment and hose lines are being used on hot spots in areas inaccessible to heavy machinery, the RM said.
Cooler, more humid weather conditions are helping crews extinguish remaining hot spots along that area, while Manitoba Hydro is replacing fire-damaged poles and providing equipment support to access challenging locations. Fire spread there has been minimal, because of humidity levels and recent rainfall, the RM's update said.
Thumbnail courtesy of Nicholas Zahari/17 Operations Support Squadron Imaging.
The story was originally written by Caitlyn Gowriluk and published for CBC News. It contains files from Josh Crabb.