Sixty residents have been evacuated from their homes in Stuartburn as raging wildfires continue to burn.

Mike Purtill is Incident Commander for the province of Manitoba. He says his office was called at about 4pm Thursday.

Purtill says there are four fires burning out of control. "Our main concern is in the village of Stuartburn, that`s the fire that we`re actively working right now with four water bombers from Manitoba Conservation," reports Purtill. "We have a small plane that follows those water bombers and he`s kind of the eyes to the pilots of the big planes and they`re actively working on dealing with the fires in Stuartburn.

Then there's the fire in the Ducks Unlimited cell area "which is kind of a bog area and it`s not a real big concern for us right now," says Purtill. "Although we have evacuated some people out of there. And we`re hoping that the fire`s going to come to a zig zag dike and it`s going to self extinguish or we`ll be able to get on top of. Right now because the grass is so long, the fuel load is so abundant that once this fire starts to move, it`s traveling at fifty kilometres per hour, so it`s pretty hard to keep up to it."

The number three fire is south of the Canada/U.S. border. Purtill says the Americans are looking after that one and have told Manitoba authorities not to worry.

And the fourth fire is in a bog area. Purtill admits they're not terribly concerned about that one. "We`re letting it burn. We`re monitoring it, though we do have a re-con crew there so if there is an eratic change in wind direction or stuff like that we can deal with that."

Assistance from neighbouring municipal fire departments has been provided including seventy-five firefighters from ten municipal fire departments and the Office of the Fire Commissioner.

Purtill says "what we`ve attempted to do is take a look at the fires and come up with a priority system in terms of value protection, what is at most risk and what can we leave burn like a bog or a swamp or something. So we`ve been able to do that. We`re at a bit of a disadvantage because of the four incidents, we don`t have a grasp of the big picture, so we`re in the air right now. We`re determining the big picture."

As mentioned, at last count there were sixty evacuations. "We`ve got a four square mile area in the Village of Stuartburn. We`re doing a prediction on where that fire`s going to go to the north now and there`s no question about it, we`re going to make some more evacuations fairly shortly. We`ve notified these people, put them on alert so that they can gather small bags, medications. The municipality has done a great job activating a registration centre," says Purtill.

As for how the fire started, Purtill says "we have no idea how these fires started. I think at the end of the day there will be certainly an investigation done. It could be from an old fire a week ago where the wind whipped up yesterday or the day before and carried an ember, could have been a rekindle, a cigarette, a quad, we don`t know, just don`t have a clue."

Shane Jentzsch lives west of Gardenton. He says "everybody is shocked, not very happy. People are concerned that their houses may be under with the fires and lose a lot of property, property damage, livestock, you name it." And Jentzsch says he's heard of livestock that have perished. "Quite a few farmers losing livestock, lot of animals, yeah it`s not very pretty sight. Cows, sheep, pigs, lot of animals."

Jentzsch says this isn't the first year they've had fires burn out of control. "It`s every year. People are itchy fingers, they like to burn, get their hay, you know their fields, whatever, people just don`t understand you know, cigarette, they could start it. People just don`t care anymore."

He notes the worst part is, the fire could creep up on your home in the night. "could happen at night, early in the morning, somebody sleeping, you know, lose a family, that`s the worst part, kids or adults they`re sleeping, they don`t know, nobody there to wake them up, nobody knows. It`s tragedy."

Jentzsch lives about one mile from where the fire was burning out of control Friday morning. "I have a lot of scrap cars and if it jumps across the road from where we are, it could be even worse, it could be very tragic. Like propane tanks and scrap and cars, about a hundred vehicles. So yeah it`s very dangerous and I`d hate to lose, that`s my retirement fund." Jentzsch knows of at least one yard down his road where a barn and semi were lost in the fire.

Ray Okapiec says this whole event sends a"shiver in the spine. All these uncertainties. And then these bombers flying putting out the fire, it`s just an experience. Makes you really think of what fire can really do. There are so many people and living things that are just affected by this tremendously by this. It`s hard to describe, you got to be here to feel it and it hits home."

Okapiec was touring the damage Friday with his son. "I`m sure he`ll remember this forever."
 
Unfortunately, with more wind in the forecast, Purtill says "the forecast is not favourable for us right now and the fuel load, we have an unlimited fuel load out here of grass and small brush and whatever."