THE PAS, Manitoba — Keewatin Railway Co. employees are part of a continuing effort to save the bridges on the remote Manitoba railroad from the wildfires ravaging the province, the CBC reports.
Manitoba is under a state of emergency as 29 wildfires, 10 of them out of control, continue to burn, forcing evacuations of 27 comminities and 21,000 people.
One of those is the Sherridon wildfire, covering more than 300,000 hectares (more than 740,000 acres) and threatening 16 bridges on the 160-mile railroad between The Pas and Pukatawagan in northern Manitoba. Eight railway employees have been continually refilling water trucks used to protect the bridges, which provide essential ground transportation.
“It’s really the only lifeline besides the airport that gets to the community of Pukatawagan,” track supervisor Clifford Nabess told the CBC. Nabess said the work is risky: “You can feel the heat right through the side of the windows. There’s a few times we’ve drove through fire where it’s actually raining on the windows.” Video on the company’s Facebook page from May 29 shows hi-rail vehicles during through fires burning within feet of the railroad right-of-way.
The First Nations-owned Keewatin Railway was formerly part of the Hudson Bay Railway, purchased from OmniTrax in 2006. It offers freight service and a twice-a-week passenger operation between The Pas and Pukatawagan — service that is currently suspended because of the fires.
Does the Keewatin Ry run north from The Pas, or from Sherritt Jct?
Here is a WIKI article map showing the greater context of the Keewatin Rwy in relation to Manitoba.
Oops, forgot the link; https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Keewatin_Railway