Planning underway for evacuees to return to Pimicikamak Cree Nation

Clouds of smoke rise from the Cross Lake community in northern Manitoba. (Raymond Robinson)

Planning is underway for evacuees to return to Pimicikamak Cree Nation, but residents are warned that more evacuations could be coming later this summer.

“All of us are wanting to go home,” said Pimicikamak Chief David Monias in a video posted to his Facebook page.

“All of us are missing home…I understand your frustrations, and I understand that it’s difficult being here.”

In the video, incident commander Caleb Finch explained crews have several missions planned for the next few days, including burnout operations for Thursday and Friday to clean up vegetation.

He added although the recent cool and cloudy weather has been helpful for crews, hotspots remain.

“As the days go on and the weather gets warmer and a little bit drier, people are going to see smoke on these edges out here around the perimeter,” he said.

Finch noted the Manitoba Fire Service predicts the fire near Pimicikamak will slow in growth over the next 10 to 12 days, which means the community may soon be able to repopulate.

However, he added there’s still “a lot of fire season left” in northern Manitoba and “down the road there could be a return for possible evacuations…but I would say that under the current weather conditions and the forecast - that’s not going to happen in the near term.”

According to Manitoba’s latest fire bulletin, the wildfire near Pimicikamak is about 58,800 hectares in size and remains out of control.

No official return date has been set for evacuees.