Last of northern Manitoba's wildfire evacuees return to community

The last of several thousand people forced out by a wildfire in northern Manitoba last month are returning home.

The Canadian Red Cross says there were more than 6,300 registered evacuees from three Indigenous communities threatened by the fire.

The agency, which managed the evacuation effort, says more than 100 members of the Garden Hill and Wasagamack First Nations are flying home Tuesday.

It says more than 1,200 residents of those communities flew home on Monday.

People from St. Theresa Point went home last week.

Evacuations of the three communities started on Aug. 29.

Everyone from Wasagamack was ordered out when the fire came to within 800 metres of the community. People with health concerns were told to leave St. Theresa Point and Garden Hill because of smoke.

Because there is no airstrip at the Wasagamack reserve, people had to take turns squeezing into boats in small groups for a 20-minute journey across Island Lake to St. Theresa Point. The effort lasted well into the night.

Wasagamack Chief Alex McDougall recalled how families had to run from the fire as burning pine needles and embers fell on them. Small lights were used on the boats to guide the evacuees safely across the water.

Small charter planes were used to airlift people from St. Theresa Point and Garden Hill between nine and 45 people at a time, but two Hercules military transport planes capable of carrying 100 passenger at a time were called in to deal with a backlog.

Almost half of evacuees from the three First Nations were put up initially at the Winnipeg Convention Centre and inside a city soccer facility. The Red Cross closed the shelter at the convention centre when more hotel rooms in the city became available.

"While this has been a very stressful time for the evacuees, we are pleased that they are all finally able to return to their homes and resume their lives," Shawn Feely, Red Cross vice-president for Manitoba and Nunavut, said in a release.

The decision to return was made by each First Nation in consultation with the federal government.