Over 17,000 people Canada The western province of Manitoba was being evacuated Wednesday while the region had its worst start for the forest fire season for years.
“The Government of Manitoba has declared the state of emergency across the province due to the situation of forest fires,” Prime Minister of Manitoba, Wab Kinew, told a press conference. “This is the greatest evacuation that Manitoba has seen in the living memory of most people.”
Kinew said he had asked Prime Minister Mark Carney to send the Canadian army to help evacuations and fire fight.
Military aircraft said Kinew, would be deployed “imminently” to help people out of the northern, endangered north communities, as well as additional fire -fighting resources.
THE climate crisis made forest fires in Canada more frequent and more intense. The country has been affected by devastating fires in recent years, especially in 2023, the The most destructive recorded.
There are now 134 active fires through CanadaIncluding British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba and Ontario. Half are considered out of control.
The evacuations include the city of Flin Flon, where 5,000 inhabitants were informed earlier to prepare to flee in a moment like a major alcohol forest fire in the mining city, which is appointed from a fictitious character in a 1905 pocket book novel.
Residents of several other distant cities and Aboriginal communities have also been invited to leave.
Most evacues should be transported in the capital of Manitoba de Winnipeg.
Evacuee Sheryl Matheson said that forest fires surrounded its small town in Sherridon, northeast of Flon Flon.
“It was overwhelming,” said the owner of a fishing lodge. “It was very smoked. You could see the fires at four or 5 km and move quickly. ”
She added: “The flames pulled 121 feet high and the firefighters could not get closer to the fire to do anything.”
Elsaida Alerta told CBC public broadcaster that she had “a major anxiety” when she and her family were preparing to leave Flin Flon, where she lived for three years.
“Especially for someone who lived in a big city (previously), who has never had to evacuate, it is definitely a nervous creation,” she said.
The only Flon Flin motorway still opened was blocked with traffic and local stations were short of gas, she said.
“We have essentially gathered all our essential things, important documents, drugs and, you know, things our animals will need,” she said. “We are just going to make our way and hope the best.”
Prime Minister Kinew said the widespread nature of fires was a cause of alarm.
“For the first time, this is not a fire in a region, we have fires in each region. This is a sign of a changing climate to which we will have to adapt,” Kinew said.
Twenty-two forest fires were active in the province.
Nearly 200,000 hectares of forests were burned in the last month, or triple the annual average in the past five years, Kirstin Hayward of Manitoba Wildfire Service said.
“Manitoba has the strongest fire activity in Canada so far this year, partly due to an extended period of hot and dry conditions,” she said.
About 1,000 inhabitants of Lynn Lake and Marcel Columbus First Nation in Manitoba and 4,000 people from the north of the village of Pelican Narrows and other neighboring Saskatchewan communities had already been evacuated earlier in the week.
A firefighter was also seriously injured when he was struck by a tree that fell while fighting flames. He was treated in the hospital, Kinew said.
The Prime Minister of Manitoba said that emergency shelters were set up and that companies and communities in the province were invited to “open your doors” to displaced residents.
Earlier this month, two residents of the small community of Lac du Bonnet died after being trapped in a major forest fire in the northeast of Winnipeg.
