A construction worker who huddled with his crew inside a smoky shipping container as a northern Ontario wildfire encircled them said he’s happy to be alive and back home with his family in Brandon, about 215 kilometres west of Winnipeg.
The 19-person crew, made up of employees from Sigfusson Northern, a Winnipeg-based construction company, and Milestone Environmental Contracting Inc., a contracting and construction company with headquarters in Langley, about 50 kilometres southeast of Vancouver, had been working at a job site for a project near Sandy Lake First Nation, a fly-in community located about 600 kilometres northwest of Thunder Bay.
Every worker in the crew, except for one, was from Manitoba.
As the work day began, Carl Genaille told his co-workers he was worried that the Red Lake 12 wildfire was getting close to their camp.
That fire was more than 156,000 hectares in size and was still out of control, according to Ontario’s wildfire map on Monday night.
“I told them this fire is gonna be here real quick because I could see the smoke was really black and then orange and it was mixed together,” Genaille said in an interview with CBC News on Monday.
“The wind was blowing really hard, man, like really hard,” he said.
The fire was about 40 kilometres from the site early Saturday morning, site superintendent Neal Gillespie told CBC on Saturday night. He said conditions got worse around 9:30 a.m. and the crew began packing up.
Genaille, a former firefighter, told his crew they had to leave. Then the fire closed in.
“We had nowhere to go in that camp area and the fire burned right around it, full blast,” he said.
He tried to get away from the fire by sheltering in a shipping container, and the rest of the crew followed him inside. The sea can was filled with thick smoke, but the fire outside was worse, he said.
In a terrifying video posted to social media by his daughter Anika, Genaille can be heard telling co-workers to be careful as orange, tree-height flames roared just metres away.
A crew working near Sandy Lake in northwestern Ontario was surrounded by wildfire on June 7. After helicopters couldn’t see them or land due to the thick smoke, they used the main road to drive out to safety.
“I was scared and I didn’t think I was gonna make it,” he said. “But I just accepted it and started helping out the guys and calming them down.”
Genaille said his past firefighter training kicked in and he put water on some blankets and got his colleagues to put them over their heads so they could breathe more easily.
“[I was] just thinking about my family, my kids,” he said. “I was just telling them I love them.”
‘I thought I was gonna lose my dad to that fire’
Back home in Brandon, his daughter Anika Genaille said she feared for the worst as she received harrowing videos from her father’s job site.
“After that one video and he said he was scared, I just burst into tears. I couldn’t stop crying because I never heard my dad say he was scared before,” she said.
At 37 weeks pregnant, Anika said she feared the extreme stress might have sent her into labour.
“I thought I was gonna lose my dad to that fire.”
She said her dad and his crew should have never been in that situation to begin with, and she’s angry they weren’t rescued sooner.
“I’m glad they decided to leave when they did, otherwise they would have burned in that sea can,” she said.
Superintendent Gillespie said there were several attempts to get the crew out by helicopter, but that the smoke was too thick for pilots to find them.
About four or five hours later, some of the smoke cleared and there was a window of opportunity to drive out of the camp and head to Sandy Lake First Nation, whose project the crew was working on.
“We got out of there just in time, but we should have been out of there like first thing in the morning or two days earlier,” Carl Genaille said.
Courage and remarkable professionalism
In a statement emailed to CBC News on Sunday, Sigfusson Northern said it sent the planes that picked up the crew from Sandy Lake First Nation and took them back to Winnipeg on Saturday night.
The staff showed “remarkable professionalism, courage, and calm response,” Sigfusson said, adding that the company’s emergency and safety protocols were “critical” in this wildfire situation.
It said it is providing counselling and wellness services to affected team members.
In an email to CBC News, Milestone Environmental Contracting Inc. declined an interview, saying it is focusing on “the safety and security of the team, the community, and all those connected to our work.”
In a statement posted to Facebook on Monday morning, the company said all of its employees were safely evacuated from the site. Milestone said mental health and wellness resources are available for affected staff members.
The social media post said the company is “actively exploring” ways to support Sandy Lake First Nation and other Indigenous partners.
‘I’m just happy he’s back in Brandon’
Genaille’s family was waiting for him at the airport when he arrived.
He said he was shaken by the experience but happy to be home with his children.
“My baby girl just came running to me and just jumped in my arms with a big smile,” he said.
Anika said: “I felt so relieved and happy to see his face, because I honestly thought I was never gonna see him again.
“I’m just happy he’s back in Brandon.”
Find the latest wildfire information at these sources:
Are you an evacuee who needs assistance? Contact Manitoba 211 by calling 211 from anywhere in Manitoba or email [email protected].
