Planes, trains and automobiles on rails taking hundreds of fire evacuees out of Pukatawagan
CBC
A massive wildfire crept within sight of residents in the northern Manitoba community of Pukatawagan Friday night as hundreds of people awaited evacuation by any available means.
Ralph Caribou, a co-ordinator with University College of the North helping with the evacuation, estimated the fire had reached within 200 metres west across Pukatawagan Lake as of about 9 p.m.
"If you stand just outside the nurse's station, you can see the flames on the other side of the lake," he said.
"The trees, they range between 50 and 100 feet high. So those flames are going just a little bit past that. And then the smoke coming out of it is really dark."
The out-of-control fire was detected Wednesday and had grown to about 10,000 hectares by Friday evening, according to the Manitoba Wildfire Service.
Thick smoke from the fire has hindered air evacuation of the roughly 2,500 residents living in the community on Mathias Colomb Cree Nation.
WATCH | Residents wait to be airlifted as smoke fills the air:
A Canadian military transport plane was sent on Friday to airlift people to Winnipeg — about 700 kilometres to the southeast — wasn't able to land due to poor visibility, according to a spokesperson with CFB 17 Wing in Winnipeg.
A number of other smaller planes have been able to land throughout the day, and a spokesperson for the 1 Canadian Air Division said the military would attempt to land again later Friday evening.
The bulk of evacuees are being taken out by rail. A train consisting of three coaches, four boxcars, one caboose, and five hi-rail trucks — pickups with the ability to drive on rails — will make a three-hour journey to Sherridon, Man., about 70 kilometres south, Caribou said.
The community is planning three runs of 750 people at a time, with the first load departing Friday evening and arriving at about midnight. The evacuees will then be taken by bus to either Winnipeg or Flin Flon, he said.
Caribou expects most of the remaining evacuees could be out of the community by noon on Saturday.
On Friday morning, the airport at Pukatawagan was full of people who expected to leave sometime much earlier.
"I'm very stressed out, I'm worried," Serena Dumas, who lives in the community, told CBC News.
A Brampton lawyer allegedly connected to fugitive Ryan Wedding was granted bail Tuesday morning by the Ontario Superior Court of Justice.
Rankin Inlet hamlet councillors recently passed a motion that has had them avoid drinking alcohol for the 12 days leading up to Christmas, with the goal of setting a positive example for the community.
Jason Jacques says he learned a lot about the importance of choosing his words carefully in his first few months as the interim parliamentary budget officer (PBO).
Durham police say a man is dead after suffering multiple stab wounds in Oshawa Tuesday morning.
An internal review of technical outages that caused significant delays at airports and international land borders this fall has exposed critical flaws with the Canada Border Services Agency's IT services.
Two people are in life-threatening condition after being pulled from a house fire in Scarborough Tuesday morning, according to Toronto Fire Services.
Whenever the door opens at the British Grenadier Bookshop, proprietor Steve Douglas doesn’t know who is going to walk through.
A northeastern Ontario potato farmer says he’s shipping more bags of potatoes to southern Ontario to make up for waning demand.
Halifax’s registry of rental properties is now available to the public online, showing what HRM staff believe are the “bulk” of rentals in the city.
A New Brunswick tenant says he’s being pushed out of his rented bungalow as retribution for complaining about his landlord, but his landlord says she’s the victim of an unfair tenancy tribunal ruling that is preventing her from using the unit to house family.
Snow and freezing rain could affect morning commutes on Tuesday, according to a special weather statement issued by Environment Canada.
Daniel Jolivet, 68, had his first taste of freedom this weekend after spending the last 33 years behind bars.
Peguis First Nation is suing former chief Glenn Hudson over allegations he failed to act in the best interest of the band and financially benefitted from breaches of duty — including claims that he enriched himself, his family and supporters.