A spokesperson for Manitoba Wildfire Service (MWS) says without rain, the fire activity in our province will remain fairly active.
Kristin Hayward is Assistant Deputy Minister responsible for MWS. She says as of Monday, 120 active fires are burning in our province. That is two fewer than there were on Friday. The total number of wildfires in Manitoba this year is 331. The 20-year average for July 21 is 243 fires.
According to Hayward, the fire danger remains high to very high in eastern and northern areas, with some areas of extreme fire danger. Western and central areas of our province are at low fire danger.
Hayward says as of Monday morning, only minor amounts of precipitation have fallen in recent days in areas battling fires.
"We have seen very scattered precipitation," she says. "So, if we don't get the precipitation, we expect fire activity to continue to remain fairly active on those fires where it has been in recent days."
Hayward says some parts of the province could easily use 50 millimetres of rain but says even five to 10 millimetres would buy crews a couple of days to make good progress.
Hayward says crews are also contending with heavy smoke, which makes it difficult for water bombers to take off and land.
"They need good visibility to safely conduct their operations," she says. "It's also an issue sometimes for the helicopters, depending on how low that smoke is."
And because of that, Hayward says it becomes a challenge to get their crews into areas that can only be accessed by helicopter.
For example, Hayward says fighting the Bird River fire in Nopiming has been limited for a few days due to the smoke. She notes that the focus there has instead been on setting up and maintaining value protection equipment as needed. According to MWS, Fire EA061 remains out of control at approximately 293,825 hectares. 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.
"So definitely the smoky conditions are impacting our ability," she says. "But the good thing too, is that sometimes very smoky conditions also lessen fire behaviour, so we don't see the fires as active those days either."
Christine Stevens is Assistant Deputy Minister for the Manitoba Emergency Management Organization. She says there are 19 states of local emergency in Manitoba and nine communities that have evacuated. There have been no new evacuation orders in the last 24 hours. As of Monday, more than 13,000 Manitobans are currently displaced from their homes. Our province is using nearly 2,500 hotel rooms for evacuees, up by 145 since Thursday.
Meanwhile, Manitoba Parks says Bakers Narrows Provincial Park will reopen for seasonal campers on Friday, July 25. Nightly campsites will reopen on Friday, August 1. Wekusko Falls Provincial Park closure has been extended to August. 7.