WINNIPEG - Parts of northern Manitoba have seen a scattering of rainfall with more expected, but flames driven by hot, dry conditions over the weekend are encroaching on several communities.Â
Officials say less than one millimetre of rain has recently fallen in fire areas, and if more doesn’t come fire activity will remain active in those areas over the coming days.Â
The government is keeping an eye on the communities of Leaf Rapids, Snow Lake and Garden Hill First Nation where blazes are in close proximity to those areas.Â
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Officials say Leaf Rapids is surrounded by fires, but that a fire guard was built up around the town and crews are ready to go should any of the fires reach the community.Â
Smoky conditions over the weekend hampered firefighting abilities in some areas by grounding aircraft.Â
Despite this, officials say crews were able to make good progress on one of the blazes close to the city of Thompson, which is home to 13,000 people.Â
“Definitely the smoky conditions are impacting our ability to action from the air specifically. But the good thing, too, is that sometimes very smoky conditions also lessen fire behaviour, so we don’t see the fires as active those days either,” said Kristin Hayward, with the province’s wildfire service.Â
“We have rain moving into the Thompson area hopefully (Monday) and into (Tuesday) so that should help to keep fire activity pretty low. We are not concerned for Thompson at this time.”
There are currently roughly 13,000 people displaced across the province due to wildfires. Evacuees are staying in close to 2,500 rooms and 840 shelter beds are being used in Winnipeg.
There are 120 active wildfires burning in Manitoba.Â
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