Thousands of evacuees return home in Manitoba, with more heading back this week

Manitoba's state of emergency has been lifted as Flin Flon residents prepare to return home after wildfires forced them to evacuate. Alex Karpa reports.

Favourable conditions have allowed the province of Manitoba to get a better handle on the wildfire situation, which means more people are on the way back home. For the northwest city of Flin Flon, evacuees will return to the community starting this Wednesday.

Noelle Drimmie and her family have been living in Winnipeg since they were forced to leave their home on May 28, meaning they’ll be returning home for the first time in almost a month.

“I feel cautiously optimistic that everything will go as the city has planned,” she said Monday morning, adding that she’s worried about the supplies she needs for her family, including her two young children.

“I am concerned a little bit about hospital resources,” she said. “I know we have a really great ER team, and they are going to do everything they can to keep us safe.”

Returning home is something Drimmie has looked forward to for weeks, but she doesn’t know what she’ll be returning home to.

“(We don’t know) what the state of the fridges and freezers are because we had power outages and stuff like that. But I have heard from other people who have returned, and things seem okay,” she said. “But it’s that emotional piece that is going to be hard for us … even on the drive up, seeing the forest that we once knew, not be there.”

Drimmie knows her house is okay. Others, however, are not as lucky.

Several structures were lost in Denare Beach, Sask., just southwest of Flin Flon. Cyndi Pedwell says she felt helpless watching her doorbell camera as the fire ripped through her place.

“It was really quite devastating, and heartbreaking,” she said. “We lived in that home since we built it in 2004.”

Pedwell and her husband have been living with their kids in Saskatoon since they were forced to leave Denare Beach at the end of May.

Not only did she lose her home, but her business in Flin Flon has been closed since the community was put under an evacuation order. She plans to reopen her clothing store in July, but is in no rush to get back to Flin Flon.

“I don’t want to be part of the mayhem of the convoy that goes back on Wednesday,” Pedwell said. “When we left in it, my gosh, it took over three times as long to where we were going.

“Going back home, I don’t want to sit in something like that,” she continued. “So I will let everyone else race back to things that they have, and we will come back on the weekend.”

Flin Flon Mayor cautions lack of services

As Flin Flon evacuees start to slowly migrate back to the community this week, Mayor George Fontaine says many services won’t be readily available and is asking those returning to bring about two weeks worth of food.

“People have had enough, they want go back to their homes, they want to go back to their lives,” he said. “But it isn’t outside the realm of reason that something could happen again, so they want to be prepared for that.”

Fontaine said he knows residents have been through a lot. He is asking for patience and understanding as people begin to return to the community.

“Be kind to each other because everybody’s had enough,” he said.

Manitoba lifting wildfire state of emergency

The state of emergency that had been in place for almost a month in Manitoba has now been lifted.

“Some of those emergency orders that we had around congregate shelters, security measures, supports for pets, were no longer needed,” said Manitoba Premier Wab Kinew during a press conference Monday afternoon. “We are still providing these services, but we are able to deliver them using the normal channels of government.”

The Manitoba government declared the state of emergency on May 28 as several communities were evacuated due to wildfires burning throughout the province.

Over 21,000 Manitobans were forced to leave their homes. Twelve communities are still under evacuation orders, but around 9,000 people have been able to return home.

As of Sunday, there were 23 wildfires burning in Manitoba and seven were considered out of control.