A resident of Woodridge says the municipality failed them last week as wildfires threatened to destroy their community. The community is still standing today, but Brian Brunelle says residents are confused with how things were handled, going as far as to say that the municipality's actions led to some "totally unacceptable" events.
Brunelle says the confusion came with the evacuation order. He notes to this day it is still unclear whether it was a mandatory evacuation or a suggestive evacuation.
"There is a huge difference between the two," says Brunelle. "Due to the confusion, I know of at least one person in my community who simply drove to a safer location and spent the night in her vehicle. And this was absolutely totally unacceptable."
Brunelle says he first learned of a possible evacuation order when a community member came onto his property and suggested to him that it might be a good idea to leave. Brunelle says at that point he and his wife did not feel they were in imminent danger. Rather, they felt it would be in their best interest to try and protect their property and to assist others in their community.
"We do have people with special needs, we have a lot of elderly people," he says. "Woodridge has a great amount of seniors and for us to be able to help each other out, I think that was paramount."
Brunelle says the second visit they got was from Hanover firefighters. Brunelle says the two firefighters were very pleasant, well instructed, and knew exactly what they were doing. However, he notes they still did not feel that they were in any danger and again chose to stick around. This time, Brunelle and his wife signed a form saying they would not leave unless it was imperative.
"In my opinion, it wasn't a mandatory evacuation at this point," he says. "Although no one had actually said that."
In fact Brunelle says at no point during the entire ordeal did anyone in a position of authority ever tell him that it was a mandatory evacuation. Brunelle says in his opinion, a mandatory evacuation is one where someone in authority comes to your residence and gives you a few minutes to gather your pets and belongings and get out. Brunelle says if you do not get out, then you can face consequences, including arrest. During a suggestive evacuation, Brunelle says residents should be allowed to sign a form stating their intention to stay until they feel imminent danger.
"If you've got underlying health issues, you know that you are going to need extra time to get out," he adds. "Then the suggestive evacuation is a good thing because people who do need that extra time can prepare and leave. A lot of times you have a two-to-three-hour window."
Brunelle says the major concern among residents in the Rural Municipality of Piney is that it was never made clear what type of evacuation order this was.
Brunelle, who has extensive experience as a firefighter and also as a police officer and working security, says it is his opinion that this should have started as a suggestive evacuation order and then on Thursday (May 15th) it should have become a mandatory evacuation. Brunelle says that Thursday was a crucial day because of how windy it was. He notes, had it not rained that day, the results would have been devastating.
"I've spoken with one of our local firefighters and he said we've got a two-to-three-hour window," says Brunelle. "Basically, if the winds had continued, we hadn't got the rain, it was coming directly for Woodridge. They had plan A, they had plan B and if plan B fails, their plan was we're out of here. So, that's how serious it did get to."
When asked how the message for an evacuation order should have been relayed to residents, Brunelle says there are many options. He notes an alert could have been sent to residents' phones, or the message delivered by email or cell phone.
"Our municipality should have been better prepared," he says. "You can't rely on the province for everything. The province comes in, they do what they need to do, but municipalities have provisions, and they have to make sure that they are doing whatever they can. And again, protection should have been a huge one. So, that's where I have a major issue with this."
Wayne Anderson is Reeve for the Rural Municipality of Piney. He says when it comes to an evacuation order, whether it is mandatory or suggestive, they "are basically the same." He notes that as a municipality they did their best to strongly urge residents to leave.
"Of course, everybody has the right to stay in their home if they want to, we are not allowed to drag them out of there, it's their choice," explains Anderson. "But the safe and prudent thing to do is to evacuate."
Anderson says it is the responsibility of the municipality to declare an evacuation order. He notes the Office of the Fire Commissioner then takes control of the situation and assists with getting the message across.
"We asked them to help with the evacuation," he says. "Because we don't have enough local volunteers for that."
Anderson says they used between 20 and 30 individuals to relay the message to residents, advising people to leave.
"I'm sure everybody there would offer that same scenario to the people," he says. "It's a very stressful time and we just do our best with the volunteers we have, to get the word out."
Brunelle says by late Thursday morning of last week, the smoke was getting very thick in Woodridge and he and his wife felt it was in their best interest to leave. So, they headed for Marchand to stay with family until the situation improved to the point that they could return home. However, later that night, Brunelle says he had an uneasy feeling about the situation and decided to return to Woodridge and check on his home.
"The town was clearly still under evacuation and to my surprise, nobody was on the highway at any checkpoints checking anyone or any persons coming in," he says. "There was no one of authority, there was no one, anyone around."
Brunelle says he then took matters into his own hands and decided to patrol all residential streets and check on properties.
"I'm very disturbed that our administration in Piney completely failed to provide protection from looters to our homes," says Brunelle. "Being that a state of emergency was in place, as well as some sort of evacuation, it is a municipal responsibility to ensure that some form of protection should have been in place such as police, conservation, security guard companies."
By comparison, Brunelle, who was once employed by the RM of Hanover, says about 13 years ago, that municipality declared a state of local emergency because frost boils made it impossible for some residents to enter or leave their property. As a result, some residents stayed away from their properties for a period of time, However, Brunelle says Hanover hired a security company to check on these properties and later asked for reimbursement from the province.
"This demonstrated that the Reeve and Council and Administration used common sense and judgment and clearly had the ratepayers' best interests in mind," he suggests. "The RM of Piney Administration, not only in this situation but many others, has taken four steps back instead of taking two steps forward."
Brunelle says there should definitely have been some form of security in Woodridge during the evacuation.
"You can't just leave an entire community without any protection," says Brunelle. "It was well advertised everywhere that the community was evacuated. So, this is an open door for criminal element."
Brunelle says with police and conservation resources cut thin right now, the bare minimum that Piney could have done was to hire one of the dozens of security companies from our province. He says they should have been positioned at a checkpoint and then turned away anyone trying to enter the community.
"The checkpoints weren't even checkpoints, to be honest with you it was a joke," he says. "There are people with special needs that need special addressing. As a municipality, we need to be better prepared for these situations so that someone is coming to each house and checking."
Further to that, he says the checkpoints did not cover all access points into Woodridge, noting motorists utilized other roads to bypass checkpoints and enter the community.
Then, to add insult to injury, Brunelle says during the evacuation order, and at a time when there was a burn ban in effect, several people in the campground were having an open fire. Brunelle says he ended up heading down to the campground with a local firefighter to speak to the individuals. Brunelle says the problem was rectified without incident.
According to Reeve Anderson, during the evacuation, they closed roads into Woodridge. He notes RCMP were tasked with patrolling the area as they saw fit. Anderson says anyone entering town was subject to being stopped by RCMP and questioned.
"I think it was pretty well looked after," he says. "We've had no reports of any looting or break-ins to this point since the people got back."
On Monday of this week, the evacuation order was lifted for Woodridge and residents were given the green light to return home. Brunelle says he was very fortunate that his property came through unscathed and only had some ashes float in. Further to that, he says he has heard of no incidents of property crimes during the ordeal. Having said that, Brunelle notes the situation could have been much different if not for the handful of residents who stayed back and patrolled the streets for security purposes.
Brunelle says he has reached out to the RM about his concerns and is not impressed with their response.
"There was really no response," he says. "They come across speaking to ratepayers as though we don't know what we're talking about, and they do. And this is very evident that the left hand didn't know what the right hand was doing."
Brunelle says he is looking into the possibility of Woodridge establishing a Local Urban District. He feels that would give residents a greater say in improvements needed and how tax dollars should be spent.
According to Reeve Anderson, 99 per cent of the comments they have been receiving from the public, related to the fires, have been positive.
"There is always some negative people out there that say you should have done this, and you should have done that," he says. "The funny part of it is, if the whole town had burned down, people would be saying well thank you for what you did to try to prevent it. But now that the town did not burn down, they criticize what you actually did."
Yet, Anderson says there are definitely things the municipality would do differently next time. He notes a debrief meeting is taking place next week with their fire departments to discuss what went well and went wrong.
"There will be definitely improvements hopefully for the next fire," he adds.
Anderson says four structures, including a house and cabin, were lost in the fire in Piney. He thanks all of the volunteer firefighters who spent time away from their families and helped out in any way they could. He thanks the Manitoba Wildfire Service and Office of the Fire Commissioner. Anderson also says a big thank you to Josh Verhoog of Moonshadow Holsteins who assisted with the use of some large equipment.
Brunelle too would like to thank the numerous firefighters and departments that came together as a brotherhood. He says most of these firefighters worked 14-hour shifts. He also thanks the province for its support at a time when resources were spread thin as a result of the forest fire situation in Manitoba.