Premier Gary Doer says there are signs that a northern forest fire crept within a few metres of a Manitoba community that was evacuated on the weekend.
Doer toured the fire-ravaged area near Grand Rapids and Flin Flon by air Sunday before returning to Winnipeg to talk with reporters. The premier says he was taken by how close the flames were to the remote community of Sherridon.
"The fire was just right at the doorstep of the school, the campgrounds and just missed the transformer and was right up to the gas tanks in the municipal area,'' he said after stepping off the plane.
Electricity has been restored to Sherridon, but the 50 evacuated residents will continue to be evacuated until the fire is no longer a threat.
Alberta and Ontario aid in battle
The province has been forced to reach out to other provinces for help fighting the large number of fires burning in Manitoba this spring , 166 so far this year, twice as many as the same period last year.
Several dozen firefighters arrived on the weekend from Alberta and 100 firefighters from Ontario arrived earlier in the week. There are now roughly 500 people fighting 30 fires in the province along with more than two-dozen helicopters and nearly a dozen water bombers.
The fire near Sherridon covers about seven square kilometres and burned both hydro transmission lines coming into the town from two different directions, but no homes were destroyed.
At their peak, the fires forced more than 2,600 people from their homes and roughly 730 remained evacuated Sunday from several communities.
Although 250 residents of Pukatawagan were put on standby to evacuate Saturday, the fire threat eased early Sunday.
The premier says the province expects to spend $10 million over the next several days fighting the fires in the province.
