Thousands to evacuate Bunibonibee Cree Nation as wildfire approaches community

A full-scale evacuation is underway at Bunibonibee Cree Nation as a raging wildfire, burning out of control, encroaches on the community in northeastern Manitoba and forces thousands to leave.  

The Canadian Red Cross said crews were alerted by the First Nation to start the evacuation of the fly-in community on Tuesday. Flights began taking off Wednesday morning, with evacuees being relocated to Winnipeg, Brandon and Thompson.

"Our team is working with the community to help get everybody out of the community that needs to get out," Jason Small, a spokesperson for the Canadian Red Cross, told CBC News in an interview Wednesday. 

Bunibonibee Cree Nation Chief Richard Hart said anywhere between 2,700 to 3,000 people live in the community at this time of the year — all residents — but a few who are staying back to look after critical infrastructure and assist with emergency response are slated to be evacuated in the coming days.

"The task we have today is to try and move as many of these people out of the community as quickly as possible," Hart said. 

Data from the province shows the wildfire was first detected more than a week ago on Aug. 4. The blaze has been burning out of control since, stretching to just over 5,700 hectares as of the latest update on Wednesday.

Firefighters from the local fire department have been working to create a buffer zone and protect outlying buildings in the path of the wildfire. But winds picking up from the south early this week, have blown the flames directly at the community, encroaching on the community on Tuesday.

Thick smoke emanating from the wildfire has also blanketed Bunibonibee Cree Nation, dissipating at times due to the winds, the chief said. 

"It's been kind of a fast-moving fire, estimates right now are that it's five miles away," he said. "Very close to us."

The province said the wildfire was approximately 10 kilometres south of the community by Wednesday afternoon. Bunibonibee Cree Nation — formerly known as Oxford House — is about 577 km north of Winnipeg, and about 185 km southeast of Thompson, Man. 

'Never seen anything like it': Chief 

Manitoba's Wildfire Director Earl Simmons said the volatile nature of the forest around the fire — made up of dry trees clustered close to one another — paired with the winds has led to the fire showing "explosive growth" with some predictions pointing the blaze could move by about 7 kilometres in a single day.

"We were quite concerned," Simmons said. "The community, it's in such a remote location we [the province] advised them to be out of the community by Thursday afternoon." 

With the wildfire growing closer council started working with the Canadian Red Cross to relocating residents Tuesday. Crews assisting with the relocations compiled residents on a list and assigned each to a slew of incoming flights scheduled for evacuation throughout Wednesday. 

Hart said small passenger planes are sometimes taking up to eight people to Thompson, Man. Meanwhile, elderly residents staying at a personal care home were boarded on a military Hercules plane loaned by the Canadian Armed Forces for an evacuation flight to Winnipeg.

"This came up so quickly for us," Hart said. "It's one thing to have an emergency response plan, but sometimes it's a little bit harder to implement it fully and completely." 

Residents desperate to leave the community as soon as possible flocked to the airport this morning ahead of their departure time, crowding the building — which turned into a "bit of a struggle" for crews on the ground assisting the evacuation, the chief said. 

"I've never seen anything like it for quite a long time," he said.

"It's very hot in the building, it's very hot outside, the weather is just not good for the community today." 

At least 1,500 Bunibonibee Cree Nation residents are expected to be relocated on Wednesday. Chief Hart said the evacuation would continue throughout the week as long as planes could access the community.

Simmons said due to the fire's "extreme behaviour" it is too dangerous to deploy crews on the ground at this time. But the province has been using air tankers and water bombers to cool down the fire and slow its spread down.

"Our water bombers can't do very much on once it gets up to that kind of fire behaviour, it's very difficult to to do anything," he said. 

Wildfire smoke forces additional evacuations 

Manitoba's wildfire service continues battling 71 active fires, about 20 of which are out of control. The province said lightning continues to ignite wildfires amid hot and dry conditions. 

The Red Cross is also supporting the partial evacuation of Nisichawayasihk Cree Nation (NCN) and Tataskweyak Cree Nation. Residents with health issues are being relocated from both communities Wednesday due to the wildfire smoke.

"People that have respiratory problems in the community were struggling to breathe and the smoke was quite thick," NCN Councillor Kim Linklater told CBC News in an interview Wednesday. 

The smoke is emanating from a cluster of three wildfires in northeastern Manitoba. The closest blaze is more than 30 kilometres away from the community, Simmons said.

Close to 200 vulnerable residents, including elders and their families, have been evacuated from Nisichawayasihk Cree Nation, starting Tuesday afternoon and wrapping up on Wednesday.

The majority of the residents have been relocated to Brandon, 664 kilometres southwest of the community, while some evacuees getting dialysis treatment are staying in Thompson, about 80 kilometres east of the Nisichawayasihk Cree Nation.

"It's just the thought of people having to leave, especially the elders it's so hard," Linklater said.

"But at the end of it all, everybody accepted the decisions that have to be made — it's all about their safety," she said.