Northern wildfires force another 'stressful' evacuation of Lynn Lake, hundreds touch down in Brandon

Bryce Hoye · CBC News

· Posted: Jul 04, 2025 2:27 PM EDT | Last Updated: 33 minutes ago

Hundreds of radical from Lynn Lake flew into Brandon Friday day arsenic the bluish Manitoba assemblage deals with its 2nd wildfire-induced wide evacuation successful conscionable implicit a month.

A announcement connected the town's Facebook leafage astatine 10 p.m. Thursday said a mandatory evacuation of Lynn Lake's 600 residents would statesman Friday, lone 2 weeks aft they returned from an earlier evacuation.

"It was a small stressful but we got it done," said Trent Farrow, who touched down successful Brandon Friday day with his woman and their 7 children.

Farrow said they hadn't adjacent finished unpacking earlier having to permission again.

"We were successful the mediate of cleaning our location still," helium said. "My spot was breached into erstwhile I wasn't location the archetypal time.… Nothing missing, but it's conscionable odd."

Buses and planes took residents to Brandon, nearly 800 kilometres southbound of Lynn Lake, as opposed to the bluish metropolis of Thompson, wherever they went aft the evacuation order issued on May 27. That bid was lifted on June 20.

Lynn Lake Mayor Brandon Dulewich said during the erstwhile evacuation, some residents stayed astatine a congregate structure connected cots, with lone entree to group showers, but this clip they're going to hotels.

"[It was] not precise bully surviving conditions for the citizens of Lynn Lake, and they were not fixed edifice rooms," helium told Radio-Canada.

"We, astatine that time, seen different communities being evacuated, airlifted consecutive to Winnipeg, going close into edifice rooms, portion our citizens lived connected cots, precise small blankets, pillows, communal showers."

The town's Facebook leafage suggested Friday that some residents mightiness beryllium archetypal bused to Thompson, wherever they would drawback a formation to Brandon.

A wildfire that started from a lightning onslaught 3 days agone is liable for the latest evacuation, Dulewich said.

That occurrence is being pushed by beardown winds and whitethorn destruct powerfulness poles, cutting energy to the town, the politician said.

"The [hydro] line, we're beauteous sure, is not accessible by instrumentality owed to the swamps and that, truthful it'll beryllium each airlifts to reconstruct [power] erstwhile [the fire] is out," helium said.

As of precocious Thursday, the occurrence was astir 2 kilometres from the transmission enactment that feeds Lynn Lake power, said Scott Powell, manager of corporate communications with Manitoba Hydro.

The assemblage was inactive getting energy into Friday afternoon, said Powell, but maintaining it depends connected favourable upwind conditions.

"We stay hopeful that the winds volition displacement and possibly stroke that occurrence distant from the transmission line, but it's surely a precise difficult situation and our thoughts are with the radical of Lynn Lake," said Powell.

Dulewich said evacuees whitethorn beryllium retired of the assemblage for arsenic agelong arsenic a period this time.

The archetypal mandatory evacuation bid for the community, astir 800 kilometres northwest of Winnipeg, came amid a scourge of wildfires that triggered a provincewide authorities of exigency successful May.

That authorities of exigency was lifted June 23, arsenic conditions improved and galore evacuees were capable to instrumentality to home, though respective communities remained connected precocious alert, including Lynn Lake.

An out-of-control fire adjacent the assemblage was 71,860 hectares, the latest provincial occurrence bulletin said connected Thursday. 

Find the latest wildfire information:

• 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].