Fire flares up, approaches Montreal Lake

The firefighting efforts are ramping up as a solution seems to be in more urgent need than ever.

“We have water bombers dropping as much water as we can and we have crews down here that are fighting the fires as best they can,” said Henderson. “We’re feeling helpless.”

“With the winds and everything else it’s a very challenging fight for them.”

The fire continued to approach the community right before Henderson’s eye, he said.

“We don’t know at this time if we’ve lost any houses because the fire is on the other side and we’re hopefully on the safe side here, but we do have fire coming up around us as we speak,” he said. “We can feel the heat here.”

“There’s a house directly ahead of us here so I don’t know if it’s going to survive.”

As Henderson described the scene, everyone in the area gathered around him at a four-way stop.

“We have all our volunteers coming together to do a head count and hopefully those that were asked to leave have left because it’s very dangerous here at this time,” said Henderson.

At first, Henderson said he wasn’t sure if he would finally be forced to leave, but near the end of the five-minute conversation, it seemed clear.

“We are scared because the fire is directly in front of us and you can see the flares,” he said. “They’re about 20 feet high right now.”

“They were 200 metres away from me but they’re getting a lot closer…”

Henderson continued, his voice getting more frantic.

“At this time everybody’s leaving so I’m going to leave too because the fire is getting right to us here,” he said. “We gotta get out of here.”

Delia Natowhow, originally from Montreal Lake, has been travelling from Prince Albert back to the community daily, despite the fires. Her 85-year-old mother was evacuated, along with her brothers, who are all staying at her apartment in Prince Albert.

Natowhow works at the Ne-he-thow Store and has remained at her post in case of emergency and feeding and refueling firefighters.

“We stayed open just to make sure that they were fed and they were gassed up and so on,” she said.

The only people present in the community are workers, firefighters and people on the fire lines, according to Natowhow, everybody else has been evacuated.

“Yesterday the fires were flaring up again so the barricades are still up and nobody is allowed into the community for safety reasons. It was OK for part of the day but as it got hotter and also became a little windier a few fires have flared up and they’re doing the best they can to try and contain them,” she said.

Working on the effort, water bombers out, the Weyakwin fire base was present and so were choppers and police.

“When I left last night it was like maybe 2 or 3 kilometres from the community which is not very far,” she said. “It was right behind some houses.”

“It’s been quite scary at times, because when you’re right in the middle of it, it’s very scary because we don’t know if the fire’s going to go up or go down.”

Natowhow said the look of the scenery has all but been transformed because of the fires.

“It’s very sad to see how much has burnt already around the community and it’s very stressful,” she said. “The Mile 11 area has burnt; it’s all black and ashes on one side.”

“It looks pretty sad to me because there was once a whole bunch of trees there, now there’s none”

It’s affected the homeowners on the left side where it just about jumped into their homes, according to Natowhow, who said some property and foliage at Bittern Lake has also burnt.

“It’s horrible. People are so used to seeing the nice trees out there…now it’s all black and ashes it just looks so sad and disheartening,” she continued. “They’ll be probably shocked as to how much has burnt.”

Still, Natowhow said it’s important to look at the bright side.

“Luckily for the evacuation no one was hurt…that’s the most important thing,” she said.

She also encourages everyone from the community to have patience.

“It’s not safe yet,” said Natowhow. “It’s not safe yet for the elders, the babies and all that; there’s a lot of smoke.”

She stressed that being safe is the most important and commended those involved in the firefighting efforts.

“For all the workers out there, kudos to them,” she said. “They’re working 24 hours a day just to make sure everything is safe.”

paNOW will be following the story closing and will post new information as updates become available.

asoloducha@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: @alex_soloducha

by Alex Soloducha

Fire flares up, approaches Montreal Lake

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