As firefighters work tirelessly to control the wildfires threatening the Rural Municipality of Piney, residents are stepping in to help protect their communities.
Josh Verhoog of Moonshadow Holsteins in St. Labre says he first noticed trouble on Tuesday.
“We were picking up a corn planter, and that’s when heavy smoke came in. There is a house right across from the yard, and all of a sudden, the trees were on fire. The fire jumped Whitemouth Lake Road, and all of a sudden St. Labre was in pretty serious danger.”
Not long after, an evacuation order was issued for St. Labre.
Verhoog’s instincts kicked in immediately. He sprang into action to protect both his farm and the community.
“We organized a couple of manure tankers to come out, and we have a pond behind the farm that we have access to. So, we dropped a pump in there so we could start loading water.”
Two other local farmers quickly responded with tractors and tankers.
“They came out within an hour of the phone calls, we had those on our yard. We were hauling, each round was about 23.5 thousand gallons, so we hauled 300,000 gallons of water from the farm onto areas that the fire department wanted us to help soak and then Woodridge Fire Department, RM of Piney Department, was all there.”
Soon after, support from the RM of La Broquerie Fire Department also arrived.
“We started fighting a fire, it would have been 2 in the afternoon, by about 12 midnight, we are starting to get ahead of the fire, and they managed to head it off, there were a couple close calls, but we got past that night anyway.”
While there haven’t been any major flare-ups since, Verhoog says they remain on alert and are shifting their focus to nearby communities.
“Town of Woodridge is where the focus is more today. Hopefully, the wind cooperates, and we get some more rain. Currently, St. Labre, I don't want to say we're safe because we still have a ways to go before we're at that point, but we have tankers loaded with water and we're ready to keep fighting the fire if it comes back.”
Preparations continue, including building fire guards to slow or stop the flames.
“This morning, some phone calls were made and we're out disking fire guards, disking open fields, trying to help make breaks for the fire if it does reach the town, just to try to help slow it down and stop it wherever we can.”
It’s been a true community effort, with help pouring in from neighbours and local farms.
“It's been all hands-on deck around here in the community, which has been probably the only good part to all this is seeing everybody get together.”
The response has been guided by the fire departments, with volunteers ready to act on a moment’s notice.
“They point, and we go. We're helping out wherever we can and providing whatever they need. There are a lot of people here. I don't know how many different fire departments are out today, but it's a big effort, and hopefully everything pulls through.”
Air support has also arrived to assist ground crews.
“The helicopters have been going, and we've even seen some water bombers today. So hopefully we keep getting more rain, I know we're not the only ones in the province with these problems right now.”
For now, Verhoog and many others continue doing whatever they can to protect their farms, families, and surrounding communities from the devastating impact of wildfire.
Evacuation is still in order for Woodridge, Badgar, St. Labre, Carrick, and the south side of Whitemouth Lake Road near Florze.
A reception center is set up for all evacuees at the Piney Community Centre located at 5017 Hwy 89 in Piney.
The province has lined up numerous hotels that evacuees can go to until the evacuation order has been lifted.
The list of hotels available is as follows:
Roadhouse 52 in Steinbach
Sleep Suite 22 in Steinbach
Morris Stampede Inn in Morris
Quality Inn on Pembina Highway in Winnipeg
Econo Lodge in South Winnipeg
Fairfield Inn at 1305 Ellice (near polo park) in Winnipeg
Oak Bank Motor Hotel
Altona Hotel
With files from Kenton Dyck