Due to advancing wildfires, thousands of residents of the Canadian province of Manitoba had to leave their homes on Wednesday. A state of emergency has also been declared.
This is the largest evacuation in Manitoba since 1997, stated Premier Wab Kinew of the province at a press conference. According to CBC News, it concerns approximately 17,000 people. Due to the wildfires, Kinew declared a thirty-day state of emergency on Wednesday night (Dutch time).
Everyone must leave the area before midnight (local time). Images show that the evacuation call is causing significant traffic jams on the roads. Kinew has requested the Canadian army to assist with the evacuations using aircraft.
Most residents will be accommodated in the provincial capital, Winnipeg. Kinew has called on the residents of the city and businesses to make space available. Many hotels in the city are full of people who fled earlier.
Residents of other towns and cities were also ordered to evacuate. About five thousand residents of Flin Flon and several indigenous tribes must leave their residential area. The 1,500 residents of nearby Creighton must also evacuate. A few days ago, the fire grew into a blaze that covers about 20,000 hectares. The fire is now about 2 kilometers away from Flin Flon.
Dry and warm weather likely cause
The fires in northern Manitoba have been raging for weeks. The fire department is working on extinguishing them, but the fire is not yet under control. Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney said on X he would offer “full support” to the firefighters fighting the fires near Flinl Flon.
Nearly 200,000 hectares have now been destroyed. It has been extremely dry and warm in the province for some time. “For the first time, we are not seeing a fire in one region, but we have fires in all regions,” Kinew said. “That indicates a changing climate, to which we will have to adapt.”