Manitoba Premier Declares Provincewide State of Emergency Due to Wildfires

A helicopter crew works on a wildfire as another is shown flying by in northern Manitoba during a helicopter tour in the surrounding area of Flin Flon, Man. on June 12, 2025. The Canadian Press/Mike Deal-Pool

Manitoba Premier Wab Kinew has declared another province-wide state of emergency due to the wildfires in the northern part of the province.

“The primary reason that we have called this latest state of emergency is because we need access to more facilities to be able to shelter this large number of Manitobans who are being forced to flee their homes due to wildfires,” Kinew said at a July 10 press conference.

The province last declared a state of emergency due to the wildfires at the end of May.

As of July 10, there are 12 states of local emergency in the province, while nine communities are under mandatory evacuation orders with two new evacuations declared within the past 24 hours, said Assistant Deputy Minister Christine Stevens, who is responsible for the province’s wildfire service and also spoke at the press conference.

Garden Hill First Nation, which is a fly-in community 480 kilometres north of Winnipeg with more than 4,000 people, declared a mandatory evacuation on July 10. Three active fires posing a threat to structures, including the community’s fuel tank farm, prompted the mandatory evacuation of the community, Assistant Deputy Minister Kristin Hayward said at the press conference. She is responsible for the Manitoba Emergency Management Organization.

Around 1,000 people will be evacuated from the community via multiple flights using a Canadian Armed Forces Hercules aircraft, while the remainder will be evacuated via commercial aircraft with 80 people per flight, Kinew said, adding that most of the community will be relocated to Winnipeg.

The community of Snow Lake also declared a mandatory evacuation order on July 10 due to three fires impacting the area. Kinew said the vast majority of its 1,000 residents are relocating to the homes of friends and family, while some are expected to stay in Winnipeg.

The total number of Manitobans under the current mandatory evacuation orders has reached around 12,600, including roughly 6,000 people evacuated within the past 24 hours, Stevens said. The town of Lynn Lake was evacuated last week.

Currently, 145 personnel are assisting with the province’s wildfires, including 100 firefighters from Mexico, 25 personnel from Minnesota, an 11-person incident management team from Parks Canada, and a seven-person incident management team from New Zealand, Hayward said.

Evacuees can seek shelter at the Leila Soccer Complex in Winnipeg, the province’s primary evacuation centre, Kinew said, adding that the province is also partnering with the Billy Mosienko Arena and will be able to make use of the RBC Convention Centre under the state of emergency powers.

‘Asking Manitobans to Help Out’

“We are going to be asking Manitobans to help out in a number of ways,” Kinew said. “And we want to really underscore just how serious this wildfire season is.”

There are 105 active wildfires burning in the province as of July 10, and there have been 261 fires to date this year, which exceeds the 20-year average of 197 fires for this date, Hayward said, who is also responsible for the Conservation Officer Service and Manitoba Wildfire Service.

As of July 8, more than 1 million hectares had burned in Manitoba, which is nearly 11 times the 20-year average of 94,000 hectares, Hayward said, adding that the area burned this year is the worst out of any of the 30 years that the province has electronic records for. The second worst year was in 2013 when just over 720,000 hectares burned.

When asked if a fire ban would be reinstated, Hayward said, “We don’t have any plans to start the fire bans back up again.”

“Most of these fires are lightning caused, and the others are arson, or suspected arson, so a fire ban probably wouldn’t have an impact,” she said.

Manitoba wildfires first began in May and led to the evacuation of 22,000 residents, which Kinew said at the time was “the largest evacuation in many Manitobans’ living memory.” Hiking trails and water routes in provincial parks were closed, and the province issued a full fire ban in all parks.

Chandra Philip and The Canadian Press contributed to this report.