Burge Lake cottage owner, Lynne Lake residents sue Alamos Gold over Manitoba fire

The owner of a cottage north of Lynn Lake, Man., and seven area residents have sued mining company Alamos Gold over a May 2025 fire that burned down the cabin and forced the residents to flee.

Burge Lake cottage owner, Lynne Lake residents sue Alamos Gold over Manitoba fire Plaintiffs claim mining company should have known 2025 controlled burn could spread The owner of a cottage north of Lynn Lake, Man., and seven area residents have sued mining company Alamos Gold over a May 2025 fire that burned down the cabin and forced the residents to flee. Burge Lake Provincial Park cottage owner Paul Grimmer claims in a lawsuit filed in the Manitoba's Court of King's Bench on July 6 that Alamos Gold allowed a controlled burn to get out of hand due to poor planning, execution and monitoring.

The situation led to his cabin being destroyed, the lawsuit says. Seven area residents say in the lawsuit that they were forced to evacuate the area and escape the wildfires, incurring expenses. Together, the eight plaintiffs have asked the court for $95,000 in special damages, plus other damages and costs.

Grimmer and his fellow plaintiffs claim Alamos intentionally set the fire and either knew or ought to have known "there was a real and foreseeable risk that the burn could escape and cause damage to the surrounding community and neighbouring lands." The allegations have not been proven in court. No statement of defence has been filed.

Alamos Gold told CBC News in 2025 it conducted controlled burns in "accordance with provincially approved permits" and rejected allegations of negligence made by provincial investigators who looked into the cause of the fire. Those investigators alleged it started at the Alamos Gold mining site and that the company was negligent because it didn't use water to extinguish its burn piles, according to a production order obtained by CBC News through a search warrant registry. Manitoba Conservation investigators alleged the fire, which eventually grew to over 85,000 hectares, started on May 7, 2025 after a burn pile reignited at the Toronto-based gold producer's MacLellan mine site, about 7.5 kilometres northeast of Lynn Lake.

By late May, the fire came within five kilometres of Lynn Lake and forced the evacuation of the nearly 600 residents of the town, which is roughly 800 kilometres northwest of Winnipeg. Dozens of properties in the area were destroyed. The production order was part of an investigation by Manitoba Conservation into whether Alamos Gold violated the province's Wildfires Act by starting a fire without taking "sufficient precautions" to ensure it could be kept under control.

A sergeant with Manitoba's Conservation Officer Service filed a sworn affidavit on the June 11 production order that forces the company to give them access to reports, drone data and other evidence allegedly held by two other contractors working at the mine. With files from Kristin Annable