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Birch Portage settlement evacuated due to wildfire threat

Aug 25, 2017 | 4:09 PM

An uncontained wildfire in the province has forced the evacuation of the settlement of Birch Portage, located about 70 kilometres South of Pelican Narrows.

The small cluster of about a half-dozen homes is threatened by the Granite Fire, which has burned for about four weeks and remains highly volatile, according to Steve Roberts with wildfire management in the province. The fire is about 25,000 hectares or about 250 square kilometres in size.

The fire has burned within a few kilometres of the settlement and is currently about 16 kilometres from Pelican Narrows. Teams are also monitoring the threat to Highway 106 which cuts through the area.

Incident command teams have been dispatched to the area, including tankers, manned crews and helicopters working to prevent further spread. Firefighters have received minimal assistance over the past few with days with minor bouts of light rain, but nothing substantive to help mitigate the flames. 

“We get repressed fire behaviour and then a couple days later we are looking at mid twenty-degree temperatures and the fire flares up again,” Roberts said. “That is the pattern, and we expect that pattern to continue for a couple of weeks, so we will be fully engaged in this fire for some time to come.”

The Granite Fire is one of many blazes in the area, and due to this concentration wildfire management is working with the Ministry of Health to make decisions about potential smoke impacts that may occur to surrounding communities.

 

tyler.marr@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: @JournoMarr