'I thought we were going to perish': Construction workers safe after wildfire closed in around them
CBC
The superintendent of a construction crew that sheltered in a shipping container as an out of control wildfire closed in around them says they're lucky to be alive.
The 19-person crew — with all but one hailing from communities across Manitoba —- had been working at a job site near Sandy Lake in northwestern Ontario. The site included workers from Sigfusson Northern and Milestone Environmental Contracting Inc. who were doing a project for Sandy Lake First Nation.
Terrifying video posted to social media shows the massive flames and smoke leaping above the treeline against a red sky, just meters from where the group was huddled.
"I thought we're going to perish, actually," said Neal Gillespie, who works with Milestone Environmental Contracting Inc.
Gillespie said the fire was about 40 kilometres away when the work day began on Saturday morning. The fire was quite a bit closer around 9:30 a.m. and the crew began packing up some of the gear in case they had to flee.
"Things started to turn a little worse," he said.
He said someone from Sandy Lake First Nation called them about putting in fire breaks, so they gathered some equipment together and moved toward a work camp 14 kilometres to the west.
"As soon as we start getting our gear out there, within the next 45 minutes, that's how quick the fire jumped on top of us," he said.
He said the group had to abandon their equipment, and gather together inside the 'very barren' camp area, following the emergency planning they'd been doing for weeks.
They used the cargo container to get away from the flames and heavy smoke.
"The fire came up and danced literally right around us," said Gillespie, adding that a few of the cargo containers around where they sat started to catch fire.
"I thought we were going to perish actually. It wasn't good."
They decided to flee the shipping container, and when they got out, part of it caught on fire as well
There were several attempts to get the crew out by helicopter but the smoke was too thick to find them or land, Gillespie said.
A proposal for a hydrogen-powered passenger rail connecting Calgary and Banff has been submitted to the federal government in the hopes of having it fast-tracked.
The P.E.I. Green Party is calling on government to release the fall fiscal update. The checkup on the province's finances is typically released sometime in October.
A main road in Inuvik, N.W.T., is closed and water is shut off for part of the town after a utilidor leak.
Immigration Minister Lena Diab sparred with her Conservative critic at a tense House of Commons committee meeting Thursday as the two disagreed on everything from immigration levels and deporting non-citizen criminals to what kind of salad they prefer.
A report by the City of Calgary presented to councillors says blanket rezoning has so far required only "minimal" upgrades to infrastructure.
Changes are coming to residential recycling in Toronto starting in the new year, two councillors announced on Thursday.
Before a bitumen pipeline from Alberta to British Columbia’s northwest coast can be built, there's another box that needs to be checked: a massive investment in carbon capture and storage in central Alberta.
Jeremy Tunraluk, president of Nunavut Tunngavik Inc. (NTI), is on leave from his position after he was charged with assault.
The head of Canada's Leaders' Debates Commission says the independent body should stop organizing post-debate news conferences and will make changes to how it decides what leaders to invite after this spring's leadership debate was surrounded by controversy.
The Alberta Health Services CEO who took over after a controversial firing in January is now himself off the job.
Standing inside her non-profit managed rental unit in central Windsor, Ont., Sue Pare points to a crack in her kitchen floor she can’t get fixed.
Five people were sent to hospital, including one person with life-threatening injuries, after a fire broke out at a fraternity house near Western University prompting a police investigation.
A rusting and derelict ship that’s been looming large over the waterfront in Springdale for years will soon be removed and disposed of by the federal government.