‘Everybody is very happy to be home’

Dolly Charlette couldn’t help but cry Sunday morning as she returned to her home in Cranberry Portage, a little more than one week after she and hundreds of residents fled from an out-of-control wildfire encroaching on the community.

“I was so overjoyed that I got to come home and the town looked normal,” Charlette said by phone, describing how a group of firefighters formed a welcoming party to greet evacuees as they arrived.

“They had a big welcome sign and were just waving and everything.”

Large swaths of land near Cranberry Portage have been burning since May 9, prompting evacuation orders which forced more than 500 people out of the community and nearly 700 in total from the region.

The evacuated areas included Cranberry Portage and nearby cottage subdivisions of Sourdough Bay, Whitefish Lake, Twin Lakes and Schist Lake North.

The province lifted the orders, which came into effect May 11, on Sunday at 10 a.m.

Charlette — who spent the week with her sister and several other evacuated family members in The Pas — wasted no time getting home, stepping through her doorway less than 15 minutes after the barricades outside the community came down, she said.

“We are so happy to be in our own beds, our own space, our own everything. We are all coming down off of the (stress) and the tiredness is coming in now.”

Weather conditions in the community, located about 600 kilometres northwest of Winnipeg, were cool and damp through the morning with a smattering of rain holding the stench of wildfire smoke at bay, Charlette said.

Reports from Environment Canada show the temperature was holding at 4 C through the cloudy afternoon and projected to drop as low as 2 C overnight. Rain showers and flurries are slated to continue until Thursday when the sun should reemerge and highs could reach 12 C.

The latest fire update, released on the province’s wildfire map Saturday, said the blaze continued to cover about 37,000 hectares of land.

In a news release Friday, the province said the fireline near Cranberry Portage is under control, thanks to favourable weather and work by fire crews.

Charlette lives in the north end of the community, where the fire reached within 1.5 kilometres. The devastation caused by the flames is not visible from her home, but the “constant” patter of helicopters flying overhead serves as a reminder that fire crews continue to battle the blaze.

“I’m just trying to stay home and stay out of their way,” she said.

The province deployed six water bombers, seven helicopters and more than 200 provincial personnel to combat the blaze. Additional firefighters were sourced inter-provincially, including 40 from Ontario, 20 from New Brunswick, 21 from Quebec and five from Parks Canada, the province said previously.

Flames damaged a few properties in the region, but impacted residents were to be notified before the reopening, it said.

Evacuee Angel Sloboda returned to Cranberry Portage to find her home and business undamaged, aside from some spoiled food in her fridge due to intermittent power outages that plagued the area throughout last week.

“I’m just thankful for all of the volunteers and the Manitoba Hydro crews that got power turned back on,” she said by phone.

Community officials set up trailers at the local curling rink to collect spoiled food until regular garbage disposal resumes next week.

Unlike the many evacuees who fled to The Pas or Flin Flon, Sloboda and two of her neighbours headed roughly 100 kilometres east to the town of Snow Lake where they stayed with her son.

She described feeling “completely exhausted” but said she was eager for life to return to normal.

“I’m going back to work (Monday) morning,” said Sloboda, who works as a hairstylist. “You don’t work, you don’t get paid.”

Both Sloboda and Charlette expressed gratitude for Blair and Melissa Lundie, the owners of MnB’s Gas Bar, who remained in the community to support the evacuation and feed firefighters throughout the week.

“I just came home from their store and I handed them some gift certificates to come get their hair done,” Sloboda said. “We had a little cry and hopefully I will see (Melissa Lundie) next week so she can sit down and relax.”

The couple continued to operate the pumps Sunday as evacuees began to return, taking turns sleeping in shifts to stave off exhaustion, Melissa Lundie said by phone.

“People have been trickling in all day,” she said. “A few people have stopped in to bring us cards and flowers, so that’s very thoughtful; definitely emotional.”

“It’s a good feeling. Everybody is very happy to be home. It is inexplicable to be able to return to your community whole. Nothing was lost.”

Melissa said the community of Cranberry Portage has always demonstrated an ability to pull together in difficult times, and the evacuation is just the latest example of many.

Lori Forbes, the emergency coordinator for the Rural Municipality of Kelsey, said efforts to help residents return to the community were running smoothly as of Sunday afternoon.

“We are not seeing too many heads in here this morning and that’s a good sign. That’s telling me everybody is on their way home or already home,” she said, speaking by phone from the Wescana Inn where the RM established a reception centre for evacuees last week.

“I couldn’t be (feeling) any better, I’m telling you.”

The RM hosted a breakfast for returning evacuees at the Wescana, located roughly 85 kilometres north of Cranberry Portage. People were treated to coffee, muffins and bannock and the RM arranged for a bus to aid in transporting displaced residents back to their homes.

“It’s a small community, so we didn’t have a whole lot (of people) to take back, but they were on their way back by 10:15 a.m.,” Forbes said, explaining that most residents were able to arrange for their own transportation.

Forbes credited The Pas, Flin Flon and the RM of Kelsey for stepping up in the face of the emergency.

“These communities did as much as they could to support this effort and so we thank them for that and now we just need to move forward and get back to living.”

tyler.searle@freepress.mb.ca