Wildfire in south eastern Manitoba continues to burn out of control

Despite cooler temperatures this week, one wildfire is still burning out of control in south easternManitoba.

Nine crews are on the scene of the 4,700 hectare blaze in the rural municipality of Piney along with four bulldozers and three helicopters.

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Gary Friesen, manager of the wildfire program with Manitoba Sustainable Development saidincreasing temperatures on Wednesday remain a concern.

"Definitely a concern because that fire is not under control yet but the crews are working on it," he said. "It's supposed to cloud over again and maybe there'll be some showers but again, we won't count on that, we're still actively working it."

A state of emergency declared on Monday remains in effect in municipality.

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Friesen says 25 mmof rain would be idea to deal with the situation theBadger area,but they'll even take higher humidity at this point.

On the bright sidehesaid the blaze, which is burning on Crown land,had not grown in size in the last 24 hours.

"It allowed the crews to get some control lines in so that hopefully when the weather and wind changes again it won't move on us."

Fires near Powerview-Pine Falls under control

Two fires that were burning out of control in the Powerview-Pine Falls area, north of Winnipeg, are now under control, Friesen said.

"They're just putting out some hot spots and patrolling the line a little bit but those fires are looking good."

Chief Sheldon Kent of Black River First Nation said one of the fires was threatening between 15 and 20 homes in the community earlier this week, but the wind remained in the opposite direction.

He said he is pleased to see crews wrapping up and said his community's emergency plans are in place should conditions change.

Friesen said restrictions on burning andback country travel remain in place in parts of Manitoba.

Provincial Road 203 remainsclosed between Badger and Carrick.

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