Manitoba Highway 6 remains closed due to a growing fire - one that has now grown to more than 140,000 hectares in size.
The EA044 fire, which began near the community of Homebrook, is now estimated by provincial officials to be up to 80 kilometres long and could soon begin to impact several nearby communities.
"Smoke from the fire could affect a number of communities in the area including Grand Rapids, Misapawistik Cree Nation, Homebrook, Skownan First Nation, Waterhen, Mallard and Gypsumville," reads a fire update from Manitoba Sustainable Development.
Perhaps the biggest effort at protecting infrastructure along the fire's path is at keeping it away from Manitoba Hydro's Bipole 1 and 2 lines - the two lines, which supply much of Manitoba's electricity from northern hydro dams, are close to each other and are located not far from the fire's current area.
"Important value protection efforts underway to preserve the Manitoba Hydro Bipole Lines 1 and 2," reads the Manitoba Sustainable Development update.
If the fire reaches the Bipole 1 and 2 lines, Manitoba's electric grid would take a hit, but likely not enough to cause widespread blackouts - the Bipole 3 line, which runs on the other side of Lake Manitoba and Lake Winnipegosis, can also provide power.
The EA044 fire now is stretching from as far south as Gypsumville to as far north as the Two Rivers Lakes, stretching along Highway 6. At its southernmost point, the fire has jumped over Provincial Road 328, just north of Lake Manitoba's northern shore.
Elsewhere in the province, another fire near Grand Rapids was contained, but not before two structures were burned and community evacuation notices were given for homes near the blaze. Other fires are burning across Manitoba, but aside from the Grand Rapids fire are located north of the 53rd parallel. Highway 20 running from north of Dauphin to Cowan is closed due to another fire that has crossed the highway not far from the community. The fire is about 1,700 hectares in size.
Saskatchewan
A fire continues to burn northeast of Prince Albert and damage done to power lines that send electricity to northern communities are not yet fixed.
The fire has reached a size of about 3,800 hectares and continues to burn east of Prince Albert in the RMs of Buckland and Garden River, covering the area with smoke. About 50 homes in the RM of Garden River have been evacuated due to the fire.
North of Prince Albert, electricity has been cut off due to the fire for large swaths of northern Saskatchewan, ranging from Spruce Home and Christopher Lake all the way up to Candle Lake, La Ronge, Stanley Mission and Southend. Communities near Flin Flon, including Creighton, Denare Beach, Pelican Narrows and Sandy Bay, have not been affected by the outage.
Power has been restored in some areas, but the grid is not expected to be fully repaired for all northern ratepayers until this weekend. SaskPower announced last Tuesday night via Twitter that work on repairing damaged power lines is continuing, with resources being brought in from around the province to get several areas fully back on line.
"We've restored power to some customers but the fire has limited our ability to restore power to most impacted customers. We're deploying all available resources for 24/7 work as soon as we're able to enter those areas. The ETR [estimated time of recovery] for those impacted is 1-3 days," reads the message.
