Thousands evacuate Manitoba as wildfires rage

More than 17,000 people in Canada’s Manitoba province were being evacuated on Wednesday as wildfires raged.

“The Manitoba government has declared a province-wide state of emergency due to the wildfire situation,” Manitoba Premier Wab Kinew told a news conference.

“This is the largest evacuation Manitoba will have seen in most people’s living memory,” he added.

Canada’s Manitoba province were being evacuated

Kinew said he had asked Prime Minister Mark Carney to deploy the military to assist with both the evacuation process and the firefighting efforts to quell the fires.

According to Kinew, military aircraft would be deployed “imminently” to help evacuate residents in endangered remote northern communities.

The evacuations include the town of Flin Flon, where 5,000 people were earlier told to prepare to flee as a blaze bore down on the mining town named after a fictional character in a 1905 paperback novel.

Where are people being evacuated to?

Residents of several other remote towns and Indigenous communities have also been told to evacuate to safety.

Most of the evacuees are expected to be transported to the provincial capital of Winnipeg.

Elsewhere, wildfires in the province of Alberta have prompted a temporary shutdown of some oil and gas production, while forcing residents of at least one small town to evacuate.

History of wildfires

Earlier in May, two people in the small community of Lac du Bonnet died after being caught in a major wildfire northeast of Winnipeg.

The worst wildfire season in Canadian history occurred in 2023. The only recorded deaths then were firefighters.

There are currently 134 wildfires raging across Canada, including fires in British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba and Ontario. Half of these fires are considered out of control.