Nopiming wildfire along Manitoba-Ontario border growing, officials say

Wildfires burning along the Manitoba-Ontario border are growing worse, putting those who own homes and cottages in the area on edge.

• Forest fire prompts evacuation of Beresford cottage subdivision at Nopiming park

As of Friday, the fire burning in Manitoba'sNopimingProvincial Park near Beresford Lake grew to 13,000 hectares. Twenty-fivepeople were forced to flee the area along with six others in remote cottages.

At last word, a second fire burning near Caddy Lake covered700 hectares.

With no access from the ground, nine water bombers from Manitoba and Ontario continue to work on the fires.

Officials put the word out to residents to leave on Friday night, and Babynchuk said about eight homes were affected by the evacuation order.

"Some left last night and [officials] said like, you know, you need to be gone for a couple of hours, see what's going to happen with the fire," Babynchuk said on Saturday.

"So we went over to a cabin at Long Lake, which is about five miles down the road. We stayed there for a few hours."

Around 11:30 p.m., Babynchuk returned to her home, but on Saturday morning, officialscame back, telling her to leave.

As of Saturday, Ontario evacuation orders were still in place forIngolf, Tannis and GundyLakes. Highway 312, which runs through Ingolf, was also closed due to poor visibility from smoke.