Manitobans with friends, family fleeing wildfires tell of uncertainty and challenges – Winnipeg

Officials in B.C’s Okanagan region are describing a fast-burning wildfire threatening the cities of West Kelowna and Kelowna as “very active and unpredictable.”

The McDougall Creek wildfire began Tuesday and has grown rapidly as it burns just a few kilometres away from West Kelowna.

Former Winnipegger Miles Jones says the uncertainty has been really difficult.

“You sit here, you wait, you take care of your key things, we’ve got those packed and ready, and we will go where we are told to go and we will listen to the authorities and go from there.”

Jones says while they’d like to evacuate as soon as possible, they don’t want to make it harder for others that need to leave.

“You know you got to wait for the evacuation notice because you don’t want to get in the way of others who have been told and are desperately trying to evacuate.”

Thousands of people in the area have been told to evacuate, and countless others have been told to be ready.

“I have never experienced anything like it,” Jones says. “I feel for the people that this has affected. It feels far more real than any other situation I’ve been in from a personal standpoint, in the sense that you feel so out of control. That is never how anyone wants to feel.”

Tamara Matheson is a Yellowknife resident who is starting at the University of Manitoba in the fall. She says there’s only one road out of the area and that there was a huge lineup when she tried to leave.

“There were lots of rumors about evacuating all of Yellowknife. That’s when my family and I decided that we were just going to get out before anything was confirmed. We just kind of decided that it was time to go, just to be safe and get our grandparents out of the town.”

Matheson says police were escorting cars through the fire zone, and it took three of four hours to get through the line.

“When we finally got to the front, we started going through the smoke and it was not bad at first. But slowly the smoke got really bad, and so we were holding clothes over our mouths and noses because it was so hard to breathe.”

Manitoban Rob Peterson says he has family in West Kelowna and his brother’s family has already left. His mom has a bag packed and the car gassed up, ready for the evacuation order.

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“My mom is waiting because they don’t really have a place. So they are just sitting there waiting to get the evacuation notice so if they have to get out, they have to get out,” he says. “It is a real changing situation there right now. That’s the uneasy part and the fear part.”

Events such as forest fires and evacuations can have a big impact on people’s mental health, says Winnipeg psychologist Dr. Syras Derksen.

Derksen says humans need a safe place, and when that gets disrupted it can be very hard to deal with. “Our homes are kind of usually pretty foundational in that safe place,” he says. “We struggle, we do things, we face risks. But often our ability to do those things is kind of based on the fact we can come back home, we can be in our own place, we can feel comforted, feel protected.”

Derksen also says worry about what you might have forgotten and what you could lose when having to evacuate can be traumatizing.

Jones describes the situation he’s dealing with as “scary.” “A lot of people are having trouble finding information as well because of their situation.” he said.

“You hear about the majority of people and friends that have already been moved out and whose homes are under threat. A close friend of mine potentially already lost their home and it’s real. It’s happening.”

Derksen says having to leave your home can be very disorienting for people and can be very traumatizing.

“Even when there’s just a threat and you’re having to leave quickly the threat becomes very real and there’s worry there’s an anxiety of, what am I going to be coming back to?”

The province says up to 3,000 evacuees from Northwest Territories could begin arriving in Manitoba as early as tomorrow. They will be put up at hotels in Winnipeg, Brandon and Portage la Prairie. They’ll also be provided meals and essential health supports.

Meanwhile, crews and equipment will be headed the other way. Manitoba Wildfire Service is looking at sending an air tanker group comprised of two water bombers and a bird dog plane, and nearly two dozen personnel in the coming days to support efforts to fight the N.W.T. fires.

— With files from Global’s Talha Hashmani

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