RM of Piney residents to return home after wildfire evacuation order lifted

Southern Manitobans who were forced out of their town because of an out-of-control fire will now be able to return home.

An evacuation order in the rural municipality of Piney was lifted after Manitoba Wildfire Services confirmed there were no concerns about the fire along the perimeter, the community said in an update Monday afternoon.

The rural municipality said the the nearly 9,000-hectare blaze is no longer out of control, and is being contained.

Around 300 people were evacuated in the town of Woodridge in the rural municipality last week. Earlier Monday, officials with the town urged residents to be patient.

"Everybody's getting anxious and wanting to lift [the evacuation] and they're wanting to come home," Wayne Anderson, reeve of the RM of Piney, said Monday.

The reeve said the rural municipality received 15 millimetres of rain at the end of the week, which helped firefighting efforts. 

Woodridge resident Mason Hildebrand has been staying in Steinbach. He told Radio-Canada before the order was lifted most evacuees he's with were "already sick" of being stuck at a hotel, and wanted to go back home.

"It's a little bit discouraging not being able to be in town in our own homes," he said. "But at the same time at least we're all safe."

The evacuation order has been lifted in the towns of Woodridge, Carrick, St. Labre, Badger and surrounding areas, as well as the south side of Whitemouth Lake Road near the townsite of Florze, the update said.

There are currently 13 active wildfires in Manitoba, and there have been 81 fires so far this year. The average for this time in the province is 61.

The 4,000-hectare fire which killed two people in the RM of Lac du Bonnet is no longer ruled to be out of control. About 150 people displaced by that fire were allowed to return home Sunday.

The provincial fire map still showed the Piney fire as out of control as of 5 p.m. on Monday. Two other out-of-control fires remain: a fire in Ingolf, Ont., that's spread into Manitoba, and the fire in Nopiming Provincial Park, which is the largest.

The province said Monday the Nopiming fire was 101,000 hectares in size and about a kilometre away from Bird River. It said 20 properties around Beresford Lake — which is north of the fire — have been damaged.

In northern Manitoba, officials are still monitoring a wildfire that was first detected on May 3 and has since grown to more than 42,000 hectares.