The Manitoba Wildfire Service (MWS) says our province remains at a moderate to high fire danger level. Human activity, including arson, is contributing significantly to current wildfire conditions. As a result, critical firefighting resources are being diverted to respond to deliberately set fires, often in or near communities.
Manitoba continues to be under a provincial state of emergency, under the Emergency Measures Act, due to a wildfire season that is now the worst in 30 years, with more than one million hectares (ha) of area burned in the province. The state of emergency is in effect until August 8 and, if necessary, may be extended.
The Manitoba Wildfire Service continues to respond to 122 active wildfires across the province, a total of 297 wildfires to date, well above the average for this date of 217 total fires.
In the east region, Fire EA061 remains out of control at approximately 277,860 ha. A closure and mandatory evacuation order continues for parts of Nopiming Provincial Park and the entire areas of Wallace Lake and South Atikaki provincial parks. PR 314 remains closed through Nopiming Provincial Park, as well as PR 304 east of Bissett. The southern portion of Atikaki Provincial Park is also closed, including the Bloodvein, and Gammon River corridors and Aikens Lake.
Kristin Hayward is Assistant Deputy Minister responsible for MWS. She says Manitoba currently has 248 personnel assisting from other jurisdictions. This includes 221 firefighters and 22 incident management team and overhead personnel. There are 200 firefighters and five agency reps from Mexico, 21 firefighters and four overhead from Minnesota, a seven-member incident management team from New Zealand, and an 11-person incident management team from Parks Canada.
"Later today, we do expect two incident management teams to arrive from Australia, 42 firefighters and one agency rep from New Zealand," says Hayward. "We also expect to receive a water bomber group from Quebec today."
Meanwhile, Christine Stevens is Assistant Deputy Minister for the Manitoba Emergency Management Organization. She says there are 12,000 individuals displaced from their homes. There are eight communities under evacuation, but no new evacuation orders over the past 24 hours. Stevens adds there are 18 states of local emergency, and Manitoba currently has more than 6,000 individuals in hotels occupying more than 2,100 hotel rooms. There are also 1,300 Manitobans in hotel rooms in Ontario.
"We just want to say that we do very much appreciate the support that has come in from not only in Manitoba but all over the world in order to support us in this response," says Stevens.