An evacuee who fled a massive wildfire said three nights of sleeping on a cot in a field house has been frustrating and she desperately wants to get out of what is supposed to be a temporary shelter in downtown Winnipeg.
“We’ve been here three nights and it’s hard, it’s very frustrating,” Bunibonibee Cree Nation (BCN) community member Emjay said on Monday morning.
Emjay, who did not want to give her last name, said her family members, including her young grandchildren, remained living temporarily at the field house at the Axworthy Health and RecPlex at the University of Winnipeg’s (UW) downtown campus on Monday, while they wait for a hotel room.
She said Sunday night was the third night that her family slept in the field house along with hundreds of other evacuees, since evacuating from their community last week due to an approaching wildfire that continued to burn on Monday.
“People aren’t sleeping, it’s hard on the young ones, and we just want to get into a hotel now,” Emjay said.
“I don’t want to be here anymore, nobody wants to be here.”
According to BCN Chief Richard Hart, as of Monday morning, about 150 BCN community members remained at the UW, as they waited for officials with the Canadian Red Cross to get them set up in hotel rooms in the city.
“Right now that is the biggest concern that we are hearing about, and the biggest stressor for people by far,” Hart said. “People got to Winnipeg, and some thought they would be in the shelter for one night at the most, and now for some it has stretched into three nights.
“They are calling us and literally begging to get out of there.”
Evacuations by air of BCN’s approximately 2,700 residents began last Wednesday morning in the remote fly-in community also commonly referred to as Oxford House, after a wildfire that began on Tuesday grew to approximately 5,700 hectares and came as close as 10 kilometres to the community by last Wednesday.
The majority of the evacuees who left BCN are being moved to hotels in Winnipeg, Brandon and Thompson.
A spokesperson for the Canadian Red Cross said Monday afternoon they could not yet confirm when all evacuees would be out of the UW and into hotel rooms.
“The Canadian Red Cross is currently supporting more than 2,250 people from Bunibonibee Cree Nation who were forced to leave their homes due to wildfires. Support includes lodging, food, transportation, and personal items,” the spokesperson said in an email. “People who have been evacuated from their community are staying in Winnipeg, Brandon and Thompson.
“Some people are currently staying at the University of Winnipeg due to a limited number of hotel rooms.”
Hart said Monday he remained with about 100 other community members in BCN, as some leaders and officials have stayed in the community so it does not become completely abandoned.
“We are staying here to keep an eye on the infrastructure and make sure there’s no theft with all the homes being empty, and we just try to keep some sense of normalcy here, and update community members as much as we can,” he said.
According to Hart, leaders in the community are not in a position to let residents know when they might be heading home, as the fire continued to burn Monday, and work to try to contain the blaze continued.
“We’ve had some luck with the wind direction and with some precipitation and been able to create a bit of a line between the fire and the community, but this is still a really big fire that we are trying to contain,” Hart said. “So it would be premature for me to talk about people coming home yet.”
According to the province, as of Monday the fire near BCN had grown to approximately 10,500 hectares.
“The Manitoba Wildfire Service (MWS), with the assistance of the Office of the Fire Commissioner and several local fire departments has established value protection resources including setting up sprinklers in the community,” the province said in a Monday fire bulletin.
