The Current - One family’s ‘very strange car trip’ to flee Manitoba fires

Episode Date: May 29, 2025

Noelle Drimmie could taste the smoke in the air as she and her family fled the wildfires approaching their home in Flin Flon, Man. She tells Matt Galloway how surreal it felt to drive away under apocalyptic skies, while trying to keep her young kids entertained in the back seat.

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It's the perfect Canadian getaway. To quote William Shatner, who got his start in Stratford, every Canadian should make the pilgrimage to Stratford. Start your next adventure at StratfordFestival.ca. This is a CBC Podcast. Hello, I'm Matt Galloway and this is the Current Podcast. Wildfire season has arrived in full force. Thousands of people across Western Canada have already been forced to flee their homes. The hardest hit province right now is Manitoba, where officials say the area burned since the start of May is nearly triple the average in an entire wildfire season. Last night, Manitoba premier,ab Kanu announced a province-wide state of emergency.

All told, we're looking at about 17,000 people in northern communities that are being evacuated from their homes over the next few hours. The majority of these folks will be coming to Winnipeg. This is the largest evacuation Manitoba will have seen in most people's living memory. In Flynn Flawn, about 800 km northwest of Winnipeg, on the border with Saskatchewan, officials ordered the entire city of 5,000 people to evacuate by midnight. Some 17,000 people in total have been told to get out of the places that they are living in. Ed Strzuc is a fellow at the Institute for Energy

and Environmental Policy at Queens University and the author of Firestorm, How Wildfire Will Shape Our Future. He's also the author of Dark Days at Noon, The Future of Fire. We have spoken a number of times in years past with Ed about wildfires and what is going on in this country.

And he joins us once again. Ed, good morning. Good morning. What are you thinking as you watch these fires burn, particularly across Manitoba? Well, it almost matches perfectly with the forecast. You know, we're suggesting the, I'm looking at the forecast maps and it's saying pretty much all of Western Canada, Northern Manitoba, and even Southern Manitoba is going to be under fire alert for most of June, and then it's just going to get worse in July, it's going to extend right into the Northwest

territories and expand really its range. So if these forecasts are right, we're in for a long, hot, smoky summer. It's only the 29th of May, and one of the things that people were saying, this feels early to some people. Are they right? They are in a way.

I mean, if you look at the long-term average, certainly we just don't see fires coming this early. I think the one of the big exceptions of course, is Fort McMurray, which burned, I think the first week in May, uh, and, uh, you know, forced an evacuation of 88,000 people. That was a really spooky year. I think no one really thought

that we could see fires coming that early, but we are seeing that now, and we're seeing it extend right into the fall season. The Northwest Territories a couple of years ago, I think three years ago, burned in late October when it should have been, you know, under three feet of snow. It suggests that perhaps the idea of a fire

season is not an appropriate use of the terminology anymore. Not anymore. I mean, it's, it's, it's just expanding. You look what happened. I was in Los Angeles, you know Angeles just before the fires there last January. They've never seen a fire in January. So basically, we're heading towards a year-round fire season in California, and we're starting

to move in that direction in Canada. Of course, we're not going to see fires in January or February, I don't think, for a long time. But it certainly is extending its reach and it's not getting any better. Let's talk a little bit more about Manitoba. Officials there say that the area burned in that province since the start of May is nearly triple the average area burned in an entire wildfire season. What are the conditions that would allow such a thing to happen? Just hot, dry weather.

I think I tell people over and over again that it can rain cats and dogs for a couple of days. But after a week of plus 25 degree temperatures, the forest has no memory of that moisture. And so unfortunately, those fires, from what I understand in Manitoba, were caused by people and we're seeing, I think, an increase in that kind of fire. In the past, it's been lightning causing about a third of the fires, the big fires in Canada, but people now are responsible, I think, for more and more of the destructive fires. And that can unfold.

I mean, again, the fact that the individuals, the human activity may have caused this is heartbreaking, I think, and infuriating to the people who are out of their homes. But you need those conditions for that to take off, right? You do. And, you know, unfortunately, I look at the forecast for the next week in, you know, northern Manitoba. It's going to cool off a bit, but it's going to be sunny and fairly warm. So those firefighters have really got a big challenge ahead for the foreseeable future.

Any rain in sight there? None, none. I think we're seeing the same thing here in Alberta and Saskatchewan. It's been unusually hot and dry. I was out at 10 o'clock last night on my front lawn waiting for my wife to come home from a trip to Ottawa, and it was kind of bizarre. It was about 26, 27 degrees, and the other thing was, is that there was not a mosquito in sight. So anybody who lives on the prairies knows that at 10 o'clock at night,

it's really not the time to be sitting outside. And we just don't see mosquitoes anymore like we used to, because it's just been so hot and dry very early in the season. Where do you think this is going to head this year? I mean, the Alberta government said in April that science reporting to a more average year after really, really tough, and this is when you and I were speaking face to face, this is after tough seasons in Alberta, for example, in 2023 and 2024. Is that prediction of an average year still going to hold up?

Not according to the North American seasonal fire assessment with both Canada and the United States participate and that came you know in May you know a month after that Alberta made the forecast and I think you know to some extent Alberta may have made that forecast based on the fact that we had you know a fairly cold snowy winter and there was a lot of moisture in the ground. But we also got 28, 29 degree temperatures in April, which is just almost unheard of. And so that moisture just disappeared really, really quickly. And I think all signs point out to it's just going to get hotter and drier as the summer goes on.

Can you just explain that? Because I think a lot of people find that difficult to square. You said that the ground has no memory in some ways of all of that rain. There's a lot of snow. That it was a, La Nina winter, is that right? I mean, a lot of people felt that the environment would not be conducive to the firestorms that we've seen in the past. But you're saying that that snowpack doesn't really matter in some ways. It doesn't matter, you know, and I learned this from a rancher,

Mack Blades in Southern Alberta, who told me, you know, I remember visiting him one time and there was a heck of a lot of snow on the ground. And I thought it's gonna be a good year for your grass-fed cattle. And he just looked at me like, you know, city boy, you don't know what you're talking about because it's good if it, you know, if it melts slowly and seeps into the ground. But if we have some really, really hot weather, it just disappears and doesn't get a

chance to soak in. And I think that's what we've been seeing more and more of in the springtime here on the prairies and to some extent in northwestern Ontario as well and northern Quebec. How well are those communities preparing as you understand it then for what might be coming their way this summer? Well you know I sound like a broken record but I think that most of these communities that we see are under evacuation alert just don't have the capacity, the tax base to be able to deal with the resilience they need to have to deal with fire. I think they need outside help from the provinces and the federal government.

We're pretty good at sending in firefighters at great cost to deal with the fire, but we're still not anywhere near to being able to do, say, what Jasper started doing in 2003 to make that town more resilient. And you look how much effort was put into that over a 20-year period, and still a third of the town burned because of the fires. And so we've got a lot of communities in Canada that doesn't have a Parks Canada Fire Force and doesn't have 20 years of thinning the forest and prescribed burns. So we need to, I think, you know, there's got to be a revolution in thinking that we just, you know, we just can't be simply pouring money into, you know, adding more firefighters on the

ground and more water bombers in the air. We've got to learn to live with fire. And I think we need those communities, since Boreal Forest communities need outside help. We're all looking for great places to visit in Canada. One of my favorites is the Stratford Festival. The theater is truly of the highest caliber and there's so much selection. They have 11 large scale shows on stage. And trust me, whatever is on when you're there will be exceptional.

People always think Shakespeare when they think of Stratford, but it's so much more. Broadway musicals, family shows, classic comedy and drama. Whether it's Robert LaPage's Macbeth or Donna Fior's Annie, you will be blown away. It's the perfect Canadian getaway. To quote William Shatner, who got his start in Stratford, every Canadian should make the pilgrimage to Stratford.

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so we put our heart into making sure it's protected. Get insurance that's really big on care. Find an agent today at Desjardins.com slash business coverage. Ed, I'm going to come back to you in just a moment. Stay on the line because we're going to go to a resident of Flynn Flawn, one of the 5,000 people who has been evacuated.

Noelle Drimmy joins us now. Noelle, good morning, are you there? Hi, speaking, yes. Hi, it's Matt Galloway from The Current. Thank you for talking to us. Where are you right now? Currently, we're at the Elkhorn Resort, just, yeah, in southern Manitoba.

We left Flynn Flawn yesterday afternoon but we were low on gas and patience and sleep so we ended up stopping here on our way to Minidosa. Tell me a little bit about leaving Flynn Flawn. How did you get word that you needed to leave and what was that like? Yeah like I had actually come home from work a little bit early. My daughter was sick, so I was home and yeah, my husband actually got a call from our daycare saying the mayor has just said that we need to evacuate. And I was like, oh, I didn't, you know, I didn't get the text or I didn't get the Facebook message. And then like two minutes later, we got the, we got the text I had signed up for like a messaging service through our city. And yeah, so it was just, yeah, kind of heart wrenching

because, you know, we were preparing, but you know, we didn't think we'd actually have to go. Have you ever done anything like this before? Have you ever had to flee? No, like we had a similar situation last year with the fires in Cranberry, which was only about 40 minutes from our community. So yeah, we were kind of in this standby thing and that time we had, you know, all communication services go down. So that part was really scary. And again, like we sort of prepared, but the fire was far enough away that,

yeah, we didn't have to go. So yeah, this is very strange. So what was it like leaving? What did you take with you and how quickly did you need to get out? Again, we had had a little bit of practice last year. So I had actually packed a bunch of bags on Tuesday because we could see the fire very clearly from our house. There's several fires burning around us, but there was one very, very close to us that we could see from our window. So I came home from work and I was like, I think we're just going to pack.

And then we were put on a pre-evacuation alert by the city. Yeah. And we just kind of had stuff ready to go, mostly clothes and toiletries and all that kind of stuff. But then very sentimental items that we know can't be replaced should the worst happen. What is it like to put that stuff in the car and hit the road? I described it to my one friend as sort of like an adrenaline vacation. You're just kind of running on pure energy going like, okay, we just got to go. And I have two young children, so trying to stay really positive for them. My six-year-old, you know, is quite nervous about the whole thing. So, trying to just keep, yeah,

spirits high and just go, okay, this is just temporary and we'll be back as soon as we can. Do you mind me asking what you said to them? I mean, you said you could see the fire. They're packing them up and it's not just a normal trip down the road, they can probably understand that you're cramming things in the car and that you're a little tense as well. What do you say to them? Yeah, yeah, well, and even my two-year-old, she's like, long car ride, long car ride.

I'm like, yes, baby, we're going for a long car ride. And living in Flint-Fawn, a lot of our car rides are very long. If we're going to go see family or if we're going to go to the city for medical, you know, we go to Winnipeg or we go to Saskatoon often enough that they understand, you know, when we're going on a long trip. But yeah, again, this one going like, oh, we're going to a friend's house for some amount of time, you know, and just trying to explain to them like this is part of the plan, like you know when you do a fire drill at school, like you do this so that everyone stays safe.

And that's the whole thing, like we want everyone to be safe, we want all our friends in Flint Flaunt to be safe, and our family to be safe. So we just, this is just something we need to do and we're going to stay together and it's going to be okay. How was the drive out? I mean we've heard in other communities of roads being blocked and airports, for example, access to airports being blocked because of fire. You said that you could see the fire from your house. So what was it like driving out? Was it around you or?

Um, well, when we, like when the flames were kind of going, like the, we actually had, you wouldn't even have known there was a fire unless you could have seen it, right? A lot of the times you can smell the smoke or um so unless um yeah like seeing the fire just like oh yeah there's definitely a fire and then the following day like all that smoke just descended on us um and so you know you couldn't go outside like you could taste it in the air um the sun's blocked out like it's very ominous like it's very apocalyptic.

And so, you know, and everyone's getting this alert attack, you know, text to leave like all at the same time. And while we did have, they're like, you have to leave by midnight, you know, like school gets out at four o'clock and that's when we got the text. I'm like, that was pretty strategic. So we all, you know, within the hour, most people were on the road and there's only one main road out of town that most people took. So yeah, it was sort of like that backlog of, it was the other, my friend and I were like, it's kind of like coming to a music festival, but no one's happy. It sounds really stressful. I mean, you make light of it as you can and you try and find the moments in it, but that's got to be really stressful.

Yeah. And again, I feel, you know, I just had moments where I'm like, this is happening. Okay, this is actually happening. This is a very strange car trip. And again, like, you know, you've got, you know, Disney on in the back and you're just trying to be like, okay. You know. Run interference as you can, right? Just kind of keep it going. Yeah. And you see people on the road. You're like, oh, hey, person I don't normally see in the PAW and oh, hey, person I don't normally see in Mafikin.

Because again, when you're doing these trips, you're generally alone. And to see like all these places sort of jam-packed and like, you know, really populous makes it, you know, seem, it's just weird. You're just like, oh, there's so many people at this gas station or so many people at this A&W. But yeah, and again, we're all just trying to get somewhere. As you said, you were low on gas and low on patients and low on sleep, so you pulled into the resort for a rest.

Where are you headed to? We did, well, we have really good friends that have a family farm in Minidosa. And yeah, just actually like past Brookdale and like, yeah, so we're headed there. There's another family that's going to meet us there and we all have young children. So we thought like this will be a good thing that kids can keep each other occupied. My daughter loves school. Like this is really, you know, she loves being

around other children and so this is a good move for us. There'll be lots of outdoor space for them and like right now like the sky is blue, it's beautiful, you know, just being able to breathe the air is like a win for me right now, like that really stresses me out not having clean air. So yeah, we're just gonna take it as it comes and just hopefully get positive updates back from the city about, you know, our town still standing. I was gonna say, can you spare, I'll let you go, but can you spare a thought for for what you've left behind? I mean, are you thinking about that at all or you just focus on, on, you know, the road ahead of you and the fact that as you said, where you are right now,

the sky's blue. Yeah, I'm just happy to be with my family. We made it safely. We got through that really first difficult day and stuff's replaceable. It really is. I have everything with me that I could possibly need. And yes, it would be unfortunate if anything burned down in our town at all. But yeah, we're, we're strong and we, we care for each other. So I know deep down everything's going to be okay. I'm really glad that you would take our call. You're in the midst of, of something. I can't imagine what it's like. As you said, you try and find the moments of light and joy with your kids around you,

but it's that's a ton of stress. Thanks for speaking with us. And I really wish you the best of luck. No problem. Thank you very much. Thank you. Noelle Germey is a resident of Flynn Flawn, one of 5,000 people in that city forced to flee, 17,000 people in Manitoba on the move right now as that province declares a province-wide state of emergency. Ed Struzik is with us as well, fellow at the Institute for Energy and Environmental Policy at Queen's University and the author of Firestorm, How Wildfire Will Shape Our Future.

Ed, you said something just before we went to Noel that was interesting, that we need to learn to live with fire. You've said that to me before. In the context of what we're talking about, what does that mean? Well, I think we have to understand that out of control wildfires are very un-Canadian. They're not polite, they don't behave like we expect them to, and we have to basically get along in some other way. And that means, I think, you know, making our communities more resilient.

We're very good, as I said earlier, at fighting fires, but we're not very good at making ourselves more resilient and accepting the fact that you know, the most destructive fires in Canadian history have all occurred in say the last 10, 15 years, and it's not going to get any better. And that it's coming towards, I mean, Jasper, Fort McMurray, Lytton, British Columbia, now Flynn Flawn, a city of 5,000 people being evacuated,

that these are getting closer to cities and urban areas? They certainly are. You know, I know that the city of Edmonton, where I live, is ramping up its effort. I think, you know, none too soon, they're coming up with a fire response plan by the end of 2026. I only wish that they had started when Jasper started or started when Fort McMurray burned in 2016. We've been

really slow, I think, in just accepting the fact that it's coming. Fire is coming and we can do something to mitigate the impacts. We may not be able to, you know, once a fire gets out of control and if the wind is blowing in the right direction, you've got a lot of heat. It's kind of like a hurricane or a tropical storm. There's really nothing that's going to be able to stop it. You might be able to slow it down or turn it the other way. But we've got to find a different way of living with fire than

the one we have now. That is good to talk to you as always. Thank you very much. Thanks, Matt. You've been listening to The Current Podcast. My name is Matt Galloway. Thanks for listening. I'll talk to you soon. For more CBC podcasts, go to cbc.ca slash podcasts.