Construction workers safe after huddling in shipping container as wildfire raged around them

Lauren Scott · CBC News

· Posted: Jun 08, 2025 9:46 AM EDT | Last Updated: 21 minutes ago

The superintendent of a operation unit that sheltered successful a shipping instrumentality arsenic an retired of power wildfire closed successful around them says they're fortunate to beryllium alive.

The 19-person unit — with each but 1 hailing from communities crossed Manitoba — had been moving astatine a occupation tract adjacent Sandy Lake successful northwestern Ontario. The tract included workers from Sigfusson Northern and Milestone Environmental Contracting Inc. who were doing a task for Sandy Lake First Nation.

Terrifying video posted to societal media shows the monolithic flames and fume leaping supra the treeline against a reddish sky, conscionable meters from wherever the radical was huddled.

"I thought we're going to perish, actually," said Neal Gillespie, who works with Milestone Environmental Contracting Inc.

Gillespie said the fire was astir 40 kilometres distant erstwhile the work time began connected Saturday morning. The fire was rather a spot person astir 9:30 a.m. and the unit began packing up immoderate of the cogwheel successful lawsuit they had to flee.

"Things started to crook a small worse," helium said.

He said idiosyncratic from Sandy Lake First Nation called them astir putting successful occurrence breaks, truthful they gathered immoderate instrumentality unneurotic and moved toward a work campy 14 kilometres to the west.

"As soon arsenic we commencement getting our cogwheel retired there, wrong the adjacent 45 minutes, that's however speedy the occurrence jumped connected apical of us," helium said. 

He said the radical had to wantonness their equipment, and stitchery unneurotic wrong the 'very barren' campy area,  pursuing the emergency readying they'd been doing for weeks.   

They utilized the cargo instrumentality to get distant from the flames and dense smoke.

"The occurrence came up and danced virtually close astir us," said Gillespie, adding that a fewer of the cargo containers astir wherever they sat started to catch fire.

"I thought we were going to perish actually. It wasn't good."

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They decided to fly the shipping container, and erstwhile they got out, portion of it caught connected occurrence arsenic well.

There were respective attempts to get the unit retired by chopper but the fume was excessively heavy to find them oregon land, Gillespie said.

"We had 3 Hueys [helicopters] travel supra our position, trying to find us, it was that overmuch fume that they couldn't find us."

"They could find the coordinates but they couldn't find the campy itself," helium said.

After 4 oregon 5 hours and unsuccessful rescue attempts, Gillespie said the unit 'successfully' drove successful a convoy to Sandy Lake First Nation on 1 of the area's main roads. 

"The towns [are] connected precise precocious alert. There's planes coming backmost and distant present similar you wouldn't believe. And there's helicopters flying retired present truthful it's rather bananas present close now."

When Gillespie spoke to CBC quality conscionable earlier 7:30 p.m. CT connected Saturday, helium said 9 workers had already near the First Nation successful a Winnipeg-bound plane. The adjacent level taking the different fractional of the unit backmost to Manitoba arrived soon aft that. 

"Our unit is harmless and sound," Gillespie said. 

Crews 'really traumatized': Chief 

As of Saturday night, the Red Lake 12 occurrence was much than 150,000 hectares successful size and was inactive retired of control, a provincial spokesperson said.

"We woke up to conscionable an orangish entity with ashes flowing each implicit the place," Sandy Lake First Nation Chief Delores Kakegamic told CBC News connected Saturday. 

An evacuation bid was issued for the First Nation connected Saturday afternoon, with astir 1,700 members being flown retired arsenic precedence evacuees, Kakegamic said. She said they are headed to the airdrome successful Red Lake, wherever they volition beryllium sent to either Kapuskasing, Cochrane, Toronto, oregon perchance Niagara. 

Kakegamic said a fewer members of the operation unit seemed "really traumatized" erstwhile they arrived astatine the First Nation connected Saturday. 

On Sunday morning, Prime Minister Mark Carney posted connected X that Canadian Armed Forces aircraft and unit person been deployed to enactment the "emergency airlift evacuations astir Sandy Lake First Nation."

Ontario occurrence accusation serviceman Alison Lake, who oversees communications for the Red Lake 12 wildfire, confirmed that each 19 workers are harmless and person been accounted for. 

CBC News has reached retired to Sigfusson Northern and Milestone Environmental Contracting Inc. but did not person a effect successful clip for publication.

However, Sigfusson posted a connection to Facebook connected Saturday nighttime confirming its tract had been affected by wildfire. 

"Our crews showed an utmost level of professionalism and courageousness successful the look of a rapidly changing situation," the company's station said. 

"We are thankful that our crews are present retired of harm's mode and connected their mode location to their families."

Gillespie said with each tract they'd gone to successful the past fewer weeks, they'd developed and practiced a protocol for what to bash successful lawsuit of needing to evacuate owed to wildfire.

"What we did, what we trained for, what we had successful spot worked close to a T and astir apt saved our lives." 

Find the latest wildfire accusation astatine these sources:

• Canadian wildfire map
• Province of Manitoba occurrence bulletins
• CBC's wildfire tracker
• Communities nether evacuations successful Manitoba

Are you an evacuee who needs assistance? Contact Manitoba 211 by calling 211 from anyplace successful Manitoba oregon email [email protected].