'Wall of fire' in Nopiming park brings 'devastating' end to friends' camping trip
CBC
Two Winnipeg friends had hoped to recreate fond memories of childhood backcountry camping in Nopiming Provincial Park with their two sons during a trip earlier this week.
But as Eric Gauthier and Pascal Breton were fishing at their campsite on Garner Lake near the Ontario border, a lightning strike near Bird River — about 60 kilometres southwest of where the group set up camp — sparked a fast-spreading wildfire that was detected on Monday.
"We're camping, we're fishing, we're on a beautiful beach in a very scenic, absolutely stunning place," Gauthier said.
"We caught a lot of fish," said his seven-year-old son Caleb Henley.
On Tuesday, Gauthier said the group had a cooler full of walleye and were grilling steaks on the barbecue when they noticed a helicopter flying overhead, nearing the beach on the peninsula where they were stationed.
They didn't know it yet, but an evacuation order was issued for Nopiming park on Tuesday, forcing residents, cottagers and campers to flee the area.
When he first saw the helicopter, Breton said he had worried officials might have thought they were cooking over an open fire, which the province bans annually between April and November, with some exceptions.
But days earlier, the group took off in two boats from a friend's cabin on Beresford Lake to Garner Lake, which is outside of cell service. That friend knew the group's itinerary and watched for fire updates from the province from their home in Winnipeg.
When the friend received the evacuation notice for Beresford Lake, they called conservation authorities to let them know where Breton and Gauthier were camping with their boys.
"When the chopper landed, Conservation came out and said, 'We've got to get you guys out of here, there's a fire really close,'" Breton said.
The group of four were among the 13 people rescued on Tuesday by Manitoba wildfire and conservation officials, a provincial spokesperson told CBC News.
"When we got into the helicopter, I was not even thinking that the camping trip was already done … I didn't know it was a fire, but it was a fire," said Breton's six-year-old son Remi Gautron-Breton, who told CBC News the sun looked red as they flew up into the sky.
"It was just a wall of fire from the time they picked us up all the way back to Lac du Bonnet," Breton said.
Gauthier first visited Nopiming park as a young teenager and said it was devastating to see one of his favourite places burning from above.
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