Work continues to evacuate the entire Municipality of Red Lake.
Mayor Fred Mota says some 1,500 residents left the community Monday night when the evacuation order was placed and municipal staff are now working on contacting those who remain in the community.
He says it’s not known at this time how many people have stayed behind.
The Red Lake area has a population of roughly 4,100.
Mota says the wind is taking the fire to Highway 105, about three kilometres south of the Highway 125-105 junction.
“What it’s compromising is going to be any vehicular traffic along with a loss of hydro. Gas has been turned off to the community right now along with any fibre optics. So once the hydro goes due to the fire, cell phone service and other communication devices are going to be pretty much non existent after about an hour or so.”
Highway 105 north at Birch Drive is currently closed and traffic control is in place.
Mota says the municipality is working with the province to secure flights to finish the evacuation.
Red Lake Fire #49 was last listed at 450 hectares in size and Mota says the blaze spread quickly.
“We’re just trying to do our best right now. We had very limited notice on the size of the fire and the threat to the community. So we didn’t have days to plan for this, it was mere minutes and hours.”
Dryden and Ear Falls are already acting as host sites for displaced residents.
The Memorial Arena had roughly 50 cots full Monday night and is still welcoming evacuees.
In Ear Falls the Arena is open for washrooms, showers and to escape the heat.
The Legion is open and the Ear Falls Library located at the Municipal Building is open with access to several computers.
Mota says “We’re in communication right now with Thunder Bay. Hopefully we can get some of our residents, approximately 500 to 600 people out to Thunder Bay. We are also working with PEOC (Provincial Emergency Operations Centre) maybe to get people to go West out to the Winnipeg area.”
He stresses the entire community of Red Lake has been understanding and working together during this difficult time.
CKDR will continue to provide updates throughout the day and is now on generator power in Red Lake.
To hear more from Mayor Fred Mota, visit the Audio link below.
Video from Giselle Morrisette shot as they were leaving Madsen area last night during evacuation
Halfway Creek ..we are out of Madsen
Posted by Janice Bjarnason on Monday, August 10, 2020
(Video Credit: Gisele Morrissette)
