A resident stranded by wildfires threatening the Mathias Colomb Cree Nation (Pukatawagan) said she is thankful helicopters have arrived to take members to safety. Sundance Hart spoke to CTV News on Saturday afternoon from the northern community stating that she’s “glad that the choppers came to pick up the community.” “I’m very worried here, I still have children that need to be evacuated,” said Hart, who noted that some of her family members have already been evacuated. “There’s a lot of people still in the community. People are still at home with their children.” Hart described the past few days as “really smoky,” adding that ash was falling from the sky. “We want to get out of here. We need to be safe.” The Assembly of Manitoba Chiefs will hold a press conference at 3:30 pm Saturday to brief the public on the state of northern evacuations. Armed Forces called in to help evacuate Pukatawagan as wildfire threatened airport The Canadian Armed Forces were previously called in to help evacuate the First Nation community in the path of a wildfire Friday morning. Speaking at a Friday afternoon news conference, Premier Wab Kinew said the province received multiple calls for help from Mathias Colomb Cree Nation as a wildfire was closing in on the community. “The situation was very, very dangerous and scary,” Kinew said. The premier said the fire near the community was threatening the airport, resulting in “a desperate need to accelerate the movement of people out of that community.” Canadian Armed Forces helicopters were brought in to perform reconnaissance work and to help evacuate residents through the day Friday. Kinew said the airport was not damaged by the fire, but heavy smoke is complicating emergency efforts in the area. The fire near Pukatawagan is 9,785 hectares and still out-of-control, according to Manitoba’s fire map. -With files from CTV’s Alex Karpa
