Lightning strike blamed for wildfire that threatened new discovery centre at Oak Hammock Marsh
Fire burned to within 200-300 metres of new facility, 'so a little close for comfort'
The new discovery centre at Manitoba's Oak Hammock Marsh came close to being swept up in a grass fire, with just two weeks to go until its grand opening.
"Had the wind been in a different direction, it might have been a different story this morning, so there was a close call," said Jacques Bourgeois, spokesperson for the marsh's Wetland Discovery Centre, just north of Winnipeg near Stonewall.
He started getting calls around 8:15 p.m. Sunday from birdwatchers who noticed dark smoke rising up.
"They thought there was actually a fire at the centre; being under construction and all, they thought maybe it was a construction error or something," Bourgeois said.
Fire trucks were sent out and extinguished what turned out to be a grass fire that crept within 200-300 metres of the discovery centre, which has been under construction for 19 months and is set to open May 24.
"So a little close for comfort," Bourgeois said.
The marsh, a 36-square-kilometre wetland and wildlife attraction, is a remnant of a former 470-square-kilometre area that extended from the edge of Winnipeg north to Teulon.
Measures to restore the remnant began in the late 1960s, and the first interpretive centre opened in 1993. The new one replaces that.
As part of the renovations, a large new pumphouse was built for fire prevention, which allowed firefighters on Sunday night to refill their supply on site, rather than going elsewhere and returning.
"The timing was great," said Bourgeois, who believes the fire was ignited by a lightning strike after storms rolled through the area.
While it's wetland, there are extremely dry grasses and cattails, he said.
"We haven't had lots of rain for a while now."
Bourgeois estimates the total burned section as a quarter of an acre "at least."
"It's a fairly large area," he said.
Grasses are charred around some of the self-guided walking trails, but the paths are still usable, said Bourgeois, who stood on the rooftop of the new building for a better vantage point.
From there he could still see some smoke rising in the distance.
"It seems like those hot spots are somewhere in the middle of the marsh, so they're pretty inaccessible [to go and extinguish them]," he said.
"I guess we will just let them burn up on their own. I think we don't have to worry too much about it right now."
Fire has always played an integral part in natural management on the prairies, helping rejuvenate the grasses and prevent non-native species from taking over, Bourgeois said.
Even now, the discovery centre has controlled burns on a regular basis to prevent buildup of debris that could fuel larger blazes.
Evacuations near Libau
Meanwhile, four homes have been evacuated and people are being asked to stay away from a fire burning near the community of Libau, about 50 kilometres northeast of Winnipeg.
Deepak Joshi, the CAO of the rural municipality of St. Clements, said that fire also started in a marsh area from a lightning strike on Sunday night.
"Unfortunately, our fire trucks or staff couldn't get into the [area]," he said.
It was monitored overnight and around 6 a.m. Monday, a drone was sent up to gauge the blaze, which had spread northeast through the marsh and grasslands.
"The fire has escalated and developed very quickly, and the situation is occurring very quickly," Joshi said.
"We've notified Brokenhead Ojibway Nation as well, who are in the path of this spreading fire."
Fire crews from the communities of Narol, the East Beaches and East Selkirk are helping, and the province is sending water bombers, he said.
People are asked to stay away from Road 91 N. and Road 32 E. to allow crews to access the area.
Update in The Pas
A fire farther north in the province, in the area of The Pas, is 20,000 hectares and spans from Opaskwayak Cree Nation/The Pas to the north side of Root Lake.
It was first detected May 3 when it was 100 hectares, but high winds fuelled its quick spread.
Residents at Rocky Lake East have been forced out, and sprinklers have been set up to help protect structures. Some homes along Highway 283 have also been evacuated and sprinklers set up.
Crews from British Columbia have now joined the Manitoba crews on the ground near The Pas.
Fires in Winnipeg
The dry conditions also contributed to grassland fires within the city of Winnipeg.
On Monday morning, crews were called to put out flames at Whittier Park on St. Joseph Street in St. Boniface, a forested area off McPhillips Street just north of Murray Avenue, and off Logan Avenue near the McPhillips Athletic Grounds.
All three fires were quickly contained and extinguished, the city said in a news release.
The Winnipeg Fire Paramedic Service last week issued a fire ban for the city, due to the dry conditions and a stretch of hot, windy conditions. Temperatures in the 30s are forecast for Monday through Wednesday before rain and cooler weather arrives to close out the week.
The fire ban is in effect until 6 p.m. May 19, and anyone breaking it could get a $500 fine.
Adela Strycharz, who's seven months pregnant, woke up to the smell of smoke around 4 a.m. Monday.
She figured a farmer was burning a stubble field somewhere, but when the smoke got heavier, her partner looked outside and saw flames in the forested area at the back of their property near McPhillips and Murray.
"Within 15 minutes, we had the whole backyard almost on fire, 100 metres from our house," Strycharz said about the blaze off McPhillips.
"It was really scary. Maybe another half-hour, and all of our homes could have been burned down."
She started banging on neighbours' doors to warn them while calling 911.
"The whole sky was on fire. It looked like the sunrise," she said about about the flames as they engulfed trees like matchsticks.
It took firefighters a couple of hours, but they extinguished the flames, leaving a blackened area behind.
Strycharz said the treed area is a popular place for people to have little bonfires and urges everyone to obey the fire ban.
"It's no joke. You could put so many lives at risk," she said. "Everybody could have been sleeping."
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With files from Meaghan Ketcheson and Gavin Axelrod