Snow Lake put on evacuation alert as northwestern Manitoba wildfire threatens town

The rapid growth of a massive wildfire in northwestern Manitoba has put yet another threatened community on alert.

The Town of Snow Lake declared a local state of emergency on Tuesday and implemented an evacuation alert as a precaution, giving people a chance to get themselves and large belongings out before further restrictions kick in.

"It's still about 20 kilometres away, but based on advice from [Manitoba] Conservation — they were actually quite surprised at the speed that these fires were moving — we decided to issue a 48-hour voluntary evacuation," Snow Lake Mayor Ron Scott said on Wednesday morning.

"The situation is evolving fairly quickly and we may end up having to issue a mandatory evacuation order. Now that hasn't happened yet, but we want to give as many people the option of getting out of town with any big items as soon as possible."

Snow Lake is about 120 kilometres directly east of Flin Flon but "due to the west and northwest winds, [the fire] has been pushed quite quickly over towards our area," shrouding the sky with smoke that's making the air thick and discoloured, Scott said.

"The air is very, very smelly of smoke, but visibility is still fairly good this morning. It's just hour by hour at this point."

For the first 24 hours of the evacuation alert, people who chose to leave were allowed to take pull-behind equipment such as trailers, boats and campers.

Once the latter 24 hours of the alert started on Wednesday morning, that type of equipment was banned due to limited capacity on the roads, Scott said.

There is no immediate threat to public safety, but everyone should be prepared in case conditions change and a mandatory evacuation becomes necessary, says a notice from the town issued Tuesday with the alert.

"Ensure essential items are packed, vehicles are fuelled, and plans are in place," it says.

Flin Flon, meanwhile, is struggling to feed its firefighters, Mayor George Fontaine said Wednesday.

"They've been raiding the grocery stores … and they're within a couple of days of not being able to have enough food to provide to all these men," Fontaine said on CBC Manitoba's Information Radio.

Some 200-250 personnel are fighting the fire, which has nearly surrounded the city but not yet breached it, he said.

In addition to running low on supplies, the crew working to feed the firefighters is small and not trained for the job, although they're doing as much as they can, Fontaine said.