The provincial researchers who investigated the cause of the forest fire of this spring near Lynn Lake, Man., Claim that it began in the near Mining Site of Alamos Gold Inc. and that the company was negligent because it did not use water to extinguish its burns batteries, according to the search order documents obtained by CBC News.
Manitoba’s conservation researchers claim that the fire, which finally grew to more than 85,000 hectares, began on May 7 after a burn battery rekindled at the Gold Maclellan mine site produced based in Toronto, about 7.5 kilometers northeast of Lynn Lake.
At the end of May, the fire had reached five kilometers from Lake Lynn and forced the evacuation of the almost 600 residents of the city, which is approximately 800 kilometers northwest of Winnipeg. Dozens of properties in the area were destroyed.
The first to estimate the damage per fire for the fire to around $ 10 million, and the cleaning has involved a “tremendous amount of work,” said Lynn Like Brandon Dulewich mayor, who also works as a firefighter with the local Fire Department.
“It is a pill difficult to swallow, knowing that it is not something that simply happened spontaneously,” said Ascewich in an interview on August 27.
Lynn Lake residents were able to return for a brief period from June, but a second unrelated fire forced them to evacuate again on July 5. Until Wednesday, they were still waiting for it to be said quietly when Manitoba Hydro restored the power of the city, allowing the evacuees to return.
“Most people didn’t even go out to see destruction,” said Ascewich. “The whole community has left. They have lost all their summer.”
The drainage order documents are derived from an investigation carried out by the conservation of Manitoba on whether Alamos Gold violated the forest fire law of the province at the beginning of a fire without taking “sufficient precautions” to ensure that it could be maintained under control.
A sergeant of the Manitoba Conservation Service presented the Affidavit on June 11 for access to reports, drone data and other evidence allegedly possessed by two other contractors working in the mine.
2 fires began on May 7
The sergeant traveled to Lynn Lake after the fire of May 7, spoke with witnesses on the ground, saw photos of the fire and examined evidence in the scene.
Alamos Gold’s staff told the researchers that two fires began on May 7, one to the south, who believed that it originated in an old battery of burns, and another to the north.
While the south fire was contained, the north was out of control, they told the researchers.
Alamos had a permission to burn brushes batteries from May 1 to 15, according to the documents. As part of the permit, the company must have specific water suppression equipment.
There was no real burning after May 3, but the documents say that instead of using water to make sure the fires were out, the batteries could “burn and burn under the surface.”
The researchers asked Alamos Gold staff how they made sure the burns batteries were extinguished. The workers said they stirred the batteries and installed a fire guard around them, according to the documents.
Alamos “was negligent to guarantee that the fires that occurred on May 7, 2025, of the burns batteries … were properly extinguished,” wrote the sergeant.
That is played by a Alamos Gold spokesman.
“In all conversations with Manitoba conservation officials, there was no discussion about the lack of compliance in relation to the fire extinction team, and in fact the entire required team was available,” he wrote in a statement sent by email.
All controlled burns were made in “according to the provincially approved permits,” the spokesman wrote.
A contractor made controlled burns, and the site was evacuated after the fire of May 7, he said. After that, Manitoba’s forest fire service assumed total fire suppression control.
The spokesman also said on May 27 that Alamos lent to Infire Wildfire de Manitoba his 1,000 gallons fire trailer. She did not respond when asked if water suppression was used in the burns batteries before reviving on May 7.
A spokesman for the Government of Manitoba declined to comment on these statements, saying that the investigation is ongoing.
Alamos had burns permission
The researchers say they could track the fire towards the partially intact burns battery that still contained active embers.
While the burning of the batteries was hired to another company, the sergeant wrote that because Alamos Gold had the permission, they were responsible for ensuring that he was properly extinguished.
None of the contractors attacked in the search warrant is under investigation, says the document.
The combination of strong wind, increased temperature and low humidity led to the surrounding vegetation to dry and the burns to rekindle on May 7, according to the researchers.
See photos of the 2025 forest fire season of Manitoba:
Soon it spread and grew rapidly, the researchers found, forcing the evacuation of the site of the mine, the camp of Burge Lake and the cabins in the area.
“If the water suppression equipment had the one required by the present regulation …[the fire] It may have been suppressed and content, “says the search warrant document.
The researchers discovered that they burned in the firefighters from the site because the roots and other combustible material had not been eliminated.
Attempts to contain the fire after it extended using heavy equipment was not successful after some teams stuck in a swamp, according to the search warrant. The fire then extended on that team.
Although the province indicated that the fire was considered under control on May 15, it was out of control before May 20.
That day, a Gold de Alamos worked told researchers that the fire was running through the site of the mine and quickly reaching the trees. Manitoba’s forest fire service tried to use a helicopter to stop the fire, but it was too late.
Mayor Ascewich said the heavy equipment can be used to turn off a fire in a burns battery, but that always has to be followed with water.
“You have to get those hot points,” said Dulewich, who has worked in the construction industry.
Alamos Gold opened his Gold Mine project in Lynn Lake in March 2025, a movement held by the city, which was established in the 1950s to support nickel mining. In the decades that followed, those mines were closed and the town city of Lynn Lake decreased, along with job opportunities.
When Alamos Gold signed an agreement in the project with Marcel Colomb First Nation to introduce a new Gold Project in 2023, Asulewich said he gave “new life” to a dying city.
“At the beginning of the year, everyone was ecstatic. The gold mine, people were very excited about it. And I think we can return there,” said Ascewich. “But I think there has to be peace.”
The Documents of the search warrant claim that Alamos Gold was negligent by allowing a fire in a burns battery allowing to rekindle and get out of control in early May. Researchers say the company did not use water suppression to ensure that it was properly extinguished. The forest fire finally forced the evacuation of the city of northern Manitoba.
