Letter to the Editor

Leisure Island property owners thankful for quick actions during 2020 fire

Looking back a year later to the Sunday, October 4, 2020, Leisure Island fire, the cottage owners are more grateful than ever for the quick actions and support of all the organizations and individuals that responded to the fire—local people and cottagers who came so quickly, often bringing their own equipment and struggling to set up pumps and hose lines, the McKenzie-Clearwater Fire Department volunteers and the staff of the Ministry of Natural Resources.

We are certain, because of the dry conditions and the strength of the wind, without this support, we would have lost more cottages, docks, boats, trees, and structures around the island.

We are so very grateful and blessed that damage was limited and there were no injuries or loss of life—human or animal— due to the fire.

A cottage on the southwest point of Leisure Island was completely lost to the flames.

Neighbours and McKenzie Clearwater volunteer fire fighters battling the blaze in the south bay.

The fire began on the southwest point of the island in the middle of an enjoyable Sunday afternoon. The wind that day was blowing strongly from the southwest, and the bush and forest were bone dry after a lovely warm summer.

A property on the southwest point where the fire broke out was soon a mass of flames, which then set fire to the surrounding trees. The flames were fed by stored boat gas and oil and quickly became extremely hot. Fanned by the high wind, the sparks jumped from treetop to treetop and spread to the east side of the point, setting fire to another cottage, boat dock and surrounding trees.

The flames were seen almost immediately by boaters, and the column of smoke by neighbours on nearby islands, who rushed to help. Some were able to bring their own fire pumps, and many brought buckets, saws and shovels.

Cottagers on Leisure Island kicked down locked shed doors to retrieve fire pumps and hoses, and sent calls to neighbours heading home to Winnipeg, who turned around and raced back to the island. Fortunately, the fire happened on a nice Sunday when there were people enjoying the last days of summer on the lake, and they came at once to help save the island.

Initially, the volunteers focused on limiting the spread of the flames on the point to the east, which was limited in other directions by an open area to the northeast, and the lake on the west. However, the wind was blowing strongly from the south and carried sparks from the burning trees on the eastern side of the point across the water to the north shore of the bay where small fires broke out among the dense stand of trees and bush.

Controlling the fire in this area became the focus for the first volunteers, who tackled increasingly numerous pockets of blazing trees, some close to the beach with an 18-foot boat and fuel tanks. These fire fighters were worried that the flames would spread from the shore up the hill toward the northeast and that the entire island might catch fire.

Just in time, the small group battling the flames were joined by the McKenzie-Clearwater Fire Department volunteers, who came with two boats bringing firefighters, pumps and equipment to cut down trees. The Ministry of Natural Resources team also arrived with substantial resources to support the efforts and ensure the fire didn’t spread to the surrounding forest, combing meticulously through the bush to find and extinguish hidden hot spots that could have ignited with potentially devastating results.

The valiant efforts of these approximately 60 people succeeded in bringing the fire under control by about 5 p.m. The McKenzie-Clearwater Bay Fire Department volunteers, the MNR team and some others remained late into the evening to make sure the fire was fully under control, and that there were no further hot spots in forested areas.

Our heartfelt thanks for saving our beloved island and cottages.

Donations from the Leisure Island cottage owners will be gratefully directed to the McKenzie-Clearwater Fire Department. Invitations will be extended to all who helped to the next Leisure Island Day celebration in the summer of 2022.

— Respectfully submitted by Beverley Watts and Maureen O’Hara-Leman