A spokesperson for the Manitoba Wildfire Service (MWS) says fire activity is picking up again in our province, as a result of dry weather over the last couple of days.
Kristin Hayward is the Assistant Deputy Minister responsible for MWS. She says 118 active fires are burning in Manitoba. So far this year, there have been 313 fires, well ahead of the 20-year average of 229 by July 17th.
"After some precipitation in a few areas over the last few days, we're definitely starting to see fire activity start to pick up, as things dry out," explains Hayward. "We also continue to see stars from lightning, as thunder showers have and continue to move through the province."
Hayward says the fire danger today is high to very high, noting there is an area of extreme fire danger in the northeast area of our province. There is a moderate fire danger in the south and southwest.
According to Hayward, there are now 295 personnel assisting in Manitoba from out of province. This includes 263 firefighters and 32 incident management team and overhead personnel. Hayward says there are two water bombers and a bird dog assisting from Quebec. There are 200 firefighters and five agency reps from Mexico, 21 firefighters and five overhead from Minnesota, 42 firefighters and one agency rep from New Zealand, a seven-person incident management team from New Zealand, and two seven-person incident management teams from Australia.
Christine Stevens is the Assistant Deputy Minister for the Manitoba Emergency Management Organization. She says as of Thursday, there are 19 states of local emergency in our province and nine communities under evacuation. The total number of evacuees currently is nearly 13,000 in Manitoba.
Manitoba continues under a provincial state of emergency, under the Emergency Measures Act, due to a wildfire season that is the worst over the last 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.
In the east region, Hayward says Fire EA061, which is the Bird River/ Nopiming fire, has been growing to the north. It is currently mapped at 293,480 ha. This fire was originally detected on May 12th. It was caused naturally and continues to burn out of control.
For the safety of both evacuees and frontline and firefighting personnel, the province is reminding Manitobans not to enter areas under a mandatory evacuation until local authorities confirm that the situation is safe and evacuees are able to return.
The Manitoba Emergency Management Organization recommends that evacuees leaving their communities due to wildfire bring their medications, identification, phone chargers, important documents, any needed baby supplies, and a change of clothing.