Snow Lake mayor describes second wildfire evacuation as ‘frustrating’

Mayor Ron Scott shares how the town is handling its second evacuation as wildfires rage, and a new state of emergency is declared.

The mayor of Snow Lake, Man., said it’s been hard on residents to have to evacuate for the second time; however, the community was anticipating a difficult wildfire season.

“It’s honestly very frustrating. It’s stressful to have to do this twice in the space of a month,” said Mayor Ron Scott in an interview with CTV Morning Live on Friday.

On Wednesday, the town declared a state of local emergency and issued a mandatory evacuation notice.

Scott said most Snow Lake residents have now evacuated, though a small crew remains to help protect the area.

He added the fire just west of the community continues to grow and is “slowly advancing towards Snow Lake.”

“[There was] no rain last night,” he said. “We did have a thunderstorm that went through a couple of nights ago, and we did get a little bit of rain in Snow Lake, but there was zero rain around the fire area.”

Scott’s comments come the day after the Manitoba government declared a second state of emergency due to wildfires. The mayor said it’s unknown at this point what this declaration will mean in terms of resources for his community, though firefighters from all over are helping the town.

“We’ve got a number of firefighters coming in from Mexico, we’ve got more firefighters coming in from Australia and the U.S.,” he said.

“That’s primarily the assistance we’re seeing so far.”

According to the latest provincial information, the fire threatening Snow Lake is 3,000 hectares in size and remains out of control.

• With files from CTV’s Rachel Lagacé.