It’s time.
After an almost month-long full evacuation of the region and an ongoing struggle against a fire that threatened the entire area with destruction, people are now able to return to their homes in Flin Flon, Creighton and Denare Beach.
Re-entry plans were first announced last week, first by the City of Flin Flon, then by the Town of Creighton and Northern Village of Denare Beach. Flin Flon announced Thursday that the community would be reopening fully to the public June 25 - Creighton announced Friday morning that they’d do the same starting June 22, last Sunday. Denare Beach’s local leadership announced they would also lift the village’s evacuation order effective Wednesday morning.
Residents of several cabin areas near Flin Flon, including Schist Lake, Big Island Lake and Little Athapapuskow, got the all-clear to come home Tuesday afternoon as well - they can come in along with the Flin Flonners at 9 a.m. Wednesday.
The province-wide state of emergency for Manitoba was lifted June 23, with provincial leadership saying the shelters, emergency measures and other changes brought in last month to help fight the fires are no longer needed.
Not everything is back up and going full strength in any of the three communities. In Denare Beach, dozens of homes and structures have been destroyed by fire, while many stores and businesses have not fully reopened in either of the three communities. In Flin Flon, Flin Flon General Hospital is not yet fully operational - the hospital can provide emergency care, but is highly limited in what other forms of care it can provide as of press time.
The great northern fire that threatened the region and ran roughshod over Denare Beach is still burning as of press time, but the active burn has moved far enough away from Flin Flon, Creighton and Denare Beach to bring people home.
Creighton
The first places to bring people back were Creighton and Denare Beach. Checkpoints into and out of Creighton were taken down Sunday and the Hanson Lake Road is now fully reopen for traffic, though it shows the signs of what’s been a hellish fire season - dozens of kilometres of burned trees await people coming back, both in the south near Smeaton and again closer to home. Saskatchewan Highway 167 to Denare Beach is still technically considered closed to the public as of Tuesday, but that will change Wednesday morning.
Creighton Mayor Bruce Fidler has stayed back in town during the fire fight and said that he was pleased to see people begin returning home, although not everyone in the community came back immediately.
“It was okay. It wasn’t as busy as we thought, but it was okay - not as many people but they’ll be coming over today, tomorrow. Everything went good,” he said.
“We were all listening to those stories and stuff - a large number of people were wanting to get home very, very bad.”
Some assistance has come to Creighton in the form of a mobile medical unit and a mental health and wellness unit, both of which have set up at the Creighton Sportex. The arena has been used as a command centre for the Saskatchewan Public Safety Agency (SPSA) during the fight against the fire, with helicopters using the Creighton Community School park next door as a landing pad.
“That’s where they’ve been feeding all the firefighters and support staff,” said Fidler.
“The medical mobile unit is inside the Sportex there, the mental health and wellness mobile unit is outside the Sportex and the firefighters are camped all over the place.”
People with chronic conditions or health issues requiring Flin Flon General Hospital have been told to delay coming back, since the hospital is not yet fully operational. Other necessities, like grocery stores, are also not yet back to full operation - some have reported having issues with freezers and refrigerators after intermittent power outages during the fire fight.
Fidler said he believed the closures were a main factor behind some people delaying, but mentioned the mobile health unit on site.
“I’'m sure that that's part of it. Some people are waiting until the hospital is basically up in full operation,” he said.
“Not coming back immediately, that’s their choice and that’s why we posted what’s available and what’s not - people can be prepared that way. We want people to be able to get home and see for themselves and hopefully, relieve a lot of that.”
Fidler said local leadership was told last week it would be feasible to allow people back in as soon as last weekend - he said he wanted to see people get the chance to come back as soon as possible.
“I was very happy and relieved, because I know people were itching to get back home, to assess if there was any damage or anything like that. A lot of people are stressed, very stressed out from being away from home and not knowing what’s going on or not seeing what’s going on. I was very, very happy to be able to allow people back, absolutely,” he said.
“It helps the residents to get back to see. It maybe alleviates some of the travel on the road - if you’re going to have three communities back the same day, you’re going to have very increased traffic, so we can spread it out a bit - and it’s only three days, so I’m sure people can manage. We do have the medical support here and stuff like that. There was a few reasons, that and just being able to get people home so they could maybe get rid of some of the stress.”
While no structures have been lost in Creighton, Denare Beach has lost dozens, maybe hundreds due to the fire. A perfect storm of circumstances - a fast wind burning a nearby fire to the east, across Missi Island and into Denare Beach - led to devastation for parts of the village.
Fidler said he hopes the area can come out to support people affected by the fires in Denare Beach, pledging support from Creighton to help.
“It’s a horrible loss for people out there. It’s heartbreaking and I know we’re doing to do everything we can, anything they need help with, anything they need assistance with, it will be there for them,” he said.
“Anything else we can do, we most definitely will. I’m sure over the next short time that there will be something set up where people can help, whether it’s donations, whatever - I’m sure there’ll be something.”
Fidler was also critical of the provincial and SPSA response to the fires nearby, saying that while support has eventually come from leadership, it wasn’t there when it was needed most.
“I think there could have been a lot more provincial support, especially in the firefighting portion of it. I really think that the province itself could have done more for the firefighting portion. I know I was on the phone with the Premier, many ministers - they’ve been supportive, but at the very beginning, there was help needed and the province, they could have done a lot more. When it came to the initial part of the fire and the firefighting, there could have been more done,” he said.
“I don’t want to start pointing fingers or naming names, but overall, there’s been pretty good support the last little while, but the initial part of it? No.”
Fidler said he wanted to tell people in Creighton that services they need will come back in time, but not immediately. The mayor asked for patience from residents and that life will return to as close to normal as possible as soon as possible.
“I can sympathize with them and the stress, everything they went through, being evacuated for that length of time. I do feel that and I just want them to know that we were doing everything we possibly could to make it safe for people to come home. Just have a little patience. We’re working on stuff, things will get back together,” he said.
“Be patient, have a little understanding and it’ll all be good.”
Flin Flon
While Flin Flon will be the last of the three communities to officially welcome the public back, the City was the first of the three to announce it was reopening, doing so last Thursday. While both Creighton and Denare Beach opened the floodgates as soon as possible, Flin Flon leadership planned a multi-stage, gradual re-entry, bringing back health services and essential businesses like fuel stations and grocery stores before bringing people back in large numbers.
The City announced June 19 that the evacuation order for the area would be lifted June 25 if the nearby fire didn’t grow any further toward the community. As of June 23, it had not, leading Flin Flon city councillors to pass a resolution to end the order, allowing people back home Wednesday morning at 9 a.m.
“We passed a motion to rescind the mandatory evacuation order - that will be in effect June 25, Wednesday at 9 a.m.,” said city councillor and deputy mayor Alison Dallas-Funk.
“That means people can come in and out as usual.”
As of Tuesday morning, Manitoba Highway 10 is still closed to traffic after the turnoff to Sherridon - that is expected to change Wednesday, allowing people to come back into the area from both Manitoba and Saskatchewan. There was a checkpoint still up as of Tuesday between Creighton and Flin Flon, only allowing authorized personnel through - that checkpoint will be taken down Wednesday morning.
Dallas-Funk told people to exercise caution on the highway into town, to avoid unnecessary travel and to show respect for community members who lost everything - while no structures in Flin Flon have burned, several cabins around the area have been destroyed along with the devastation reported in Denare Beach.
“We ask that you take your time on the highway - it’s going to be extremely busy when you’re entering back into the community, so please do not stop on the highway to take pictures or impede traffic at all. There are still fire crews out there, so safety is our number one priority,” she said.
“We also need to be mindful of loss for community members. We ask that you keep your travel down to a minimum - just come into the community, get yourself situated, absolutely no disaster tourism. We need to be respectful of people’s losses and mindful of that. We would appreciate it if the community would be mindful of that and just make the way home safely and patiently.”
Within Flin Flon, the Whitney Forum will be used as a main staging area for people coming home - Dallas-Funk said the arena will have workers with Red Cross, the Manitoba Emergency Management Organization (EMO), health workers, hygiene and cleaning kits, food items and mental health care available, starting Wednesday, Thursday and Friday from 9 a.m.-7 p.m. Dallas-Funk also said the centre will be open to people from outside Flin Flon proper, including Creighton, Denare Beach, Cranberry Portage and elsewhere.
“Denare Beach, Creighton, Flin Flon, all are welcome at this wellness centre. We’ve applied those numbers of how many people we think will attend, so even if you’re from Cranberry Portage and you’re in Flin Flon and need some supplies, please come and see us. If you have questions or you’re just trying to navigate anything, if you just want to talk to somebody, please come to the Whitney Forum when you get back and we will do whatever we can to help you with any issues you’re having - even just to have a chat,” she said.
“We’ve partnered with the food bank so there will be food, perishable and non-perishable items, there will be hygiene kits, cleaning kit and masks available for all the community - and by all the community, I mean all the community.”
The City, working along with the Red Cross and EMO, was coordinating buses coming from Winnipeg to Flin Flon, making stops at several other communities along the way. Buses were set to leave from the Holiday Inn Airport in Winnipeg at 9:30 a.m. local time, with a shuttle to the bus going from the Fort Garry Hotel, Hilton Airport, Mainstay or former Clarion on Portage Avenue - anyone needing that bus is asked to be ready in the hotel lobby at 9 a.m. for pickup.
Another bus will travel up the Highway 10, going through Portage la Prairie, Dauphin, Swan River and The Pas, stopping at the Super 8 Hotel in both Portage and Dauphin (loading at 8:30 a.m. and 11:30 a.m. respectively), the Centennial Arena parking lot in Swan River (loading at 1:45 p.m.) and the Wescana Inn in the Pas (loading at 4:15 p.m.) Yet another bus will come up from Brandon, loading at the Victoria Inn at 9 a.m. and leaving at 9:30 a.m.
About 600 people took buses out of the Flin Flon area during the initial evacuation, but only about 300 people have been registered to return via bus as of Monday night - Dallas-Funk said all people in need of a ride should either email [email protected] or speak to Red Cross or EMO officers.
“There will be multiple coaches. We have secured many of them so nobody will get left behind. There will be multiple departure times on Wednesday. Once we get all the muster points down, we will announce it,” she said.
“The majority of people that are in Winnipeg will be in contact with Red Cross. We are working in partnership with them, but there are locations in Winnipeg, Portage la Prairie, Brandon, Swan River, Dauphin and The Pas and we don’t want to miss anybody at all.”
While the past month has been tough, Dallas-Funk said she and others will do what they can to make sure everybody makes it back to Flin Flon safe.
“Looking forward to seeing everybody once they get home. Hope to see you soon,” she said.
Denare Beach
While Denare Beach will have the evacuation order for the area lifted at 8 a.m. local time Wednesday and the roadblock will be removed, the Village is asking people to show respect for locals as people begin to rebuild.
All people coming back to Denare Beach are asked to bring seven days worth of provisions on their way in - groceries, essential items, pet supplies, cleaning supplies, water, medication and the like. Drivers are also asked to be careful and lower speed if needed, as fire crews are still working in the area.
“Please have respect for our residents during this difficult time. Do not trespass on private property,” reads an update shared on the Village’s offical social media pages Monday.
“Due to the many crews working in the Village and for those who have experienced losses, we ask that any unnecessary traffic refrain from entering the Village at this time. Thank you for your cooperation.”
Landlines within the area are still down as of Tuesday morning, but access to the community’s landfill will be restored and fees for disposing of fridges and freezers will be waived. A reception centre has been set up at the DenarePlex and Denare Beach residents can also access services at Creighton’s centre at the Sportex.
