Evacuees arrive in Winnipeg as wildfires force thousands out, bring smoke advisories

WINNIPEG — Evacuees from northern Manitoba continued to pour into Winnipeg Friday as a renewed round of wildfires threatened communities and shrouded much of the province in smoke.

“It’s been rough,” Misty Harper said, as she and her partner walked outside of a large indoor soccer complex set up to house evacuees, along with her one-year-old daughter in a stroller.

Some people sat at picnic tables under small canopies or on grass in an adjacent field. Buses filled with more evacuees arrived a few times each hour.

Harper, her partner and five children were among more than 3,000 people being flown out of Garden Hill First Nation, which is not accessible by road.

The family spent several hours at the airport near Garden Hill before arriving late Thursday and sleeping on cots in the soccer complex. They were waiting Friday for word on whether hotel rooms would be available until it’s safe for them to return home.

“All the kids were getting tired and moody. Everybody was getting hungry, so it was really stressful,” she said.

“It’s hard to sleep in there with all these people. A lot of kids running around and whatnot.”

Manitoba is under a provincewide state of emergency as wildfires continue to rage, forcing even more evacuations out of northern communities. The government declared the order Thursday, for the second time this year.

With the latest round of fires and evacuations, the province reported more than one million hectares burned — more than 10 times the average over the last 20 years. It is the largest amount of land burned in the 30 years the province has kept electronic records.

In total, about 12,600 people are out of their homes in Manitoba. The government gave notice that it intends to use Winnipeg’s major convention centre to house more evacuees. An anime conference was taking place at the centre Friday and was set to run all weekend.

The military stepped in with a large Hercules transport plane to fly people out of Garden Hill. Harper and some others were taken out on smaller planes.

Among the other evacuated communities is Snow Lake, a town 600 kilometres northwest of Winnipeg with about 1,000 residents.

Mayor Ron Scott said people left by highway earlier in the week and he was planning to leave Friday. “Everyone that needs to be out is gone now,” he said.

A wildfire was about six kilometres away from the town’s doorstep — some 10 kilometres closer than it was two days earlier.

“It’s a bit of a guessing game right now,” Scott said.

Manitoba RCMP said officers helped complete evacuations in Snow Lake, Lynn Lake, Leaf Rapids, Granville Lake and Mathias Colomb Cree Nation.

Environment Canada has issued air quality warnings and advisories for much of the province, including Winnipeg. Some people, including seniors and those with heart and lung issues, are at greater risk due to air pollution.

In Saskatchewan, crews worked frantically overnight to save buildings in the evacuated village of Beauval, 340 kilometres north of Saskatoon. Steve Roberts, with the Saskatchewan Public Safety Agency, said so far they have been successful, with only one shed and a car burned.

Beauval has seen 560 residents leave.

The area is threatened by the Muskeg fire, which has now expanded to 950 square kilometres.

Road access has been cut to the community of Patuanak, north of Beauval and home to about 700 residents. About 120 high-priority cases, including seniors and young children and those with medical issues, were being airlifted out.

In total there are just under 1,000 people out of their homes due to wildfires in Saskatchewan, most of them in the area in and around Beauval.

Crews are battling 57 fires, 14 of which are out of control.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published July 11, 2025.

Steve Lambert, The Canadian Press