Gold mine accused of sparking wildfire that caused evacuations

Several property owners are suing a Lynn Lake-area gold mine over a massive wildfire that burned more than 210,000 acres last spring, causing evacuations as the flames closed in on the community.

Gold mine accused of sparking wildfire that caused evacuations Nine property owners take Alamos to court over 2025 blaze that torched 210,000 acres To continue reading, please subscribe: Digital Subscription One year of digital access for only $205* - Enjoy unlimited reading on winnipegfreepress.com - Read the E-Edition, our digital replica newspaper - Access News Break, our award-winning app - Play interactive puzzles *First annual payment billed as $205.00 + GST for one year. This annual subscription will automatically renew at $233.00 + GST every 52 weeks (10% off the regular annual price of $259.35).

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Your next Brandon Sun subscription payment will increase by $1.00 and you will be charged $17.95 plus GST for four weeks. After four weeks, your payment will increase to $24.95 plus GST every four weeks. Several property owners are suing a Lynn Lake-area gold mine over a massive wildfire that burned more than 210,000 acres last spring, causing evacuations as the flames closed in on the community.

Provincial conservation officials allege in court documents the wildfire started May 7 last year, after a controlled burn pile reignited at Alamos Gold Inc., located about 7.5 kilometres northeast of Lynn Lake. The blaze spread to within five kilometres of the small northern community. A Manitoba government spokesman said Monday the fire remains under investigation.

The wildfire led to the late May 2025 evacuations of Lynn Lake, home to nearly 600 residents and located about 800 kilometres northwest of Winnipeg, and Marcel Colomb First Nation. Several derelict buildings in Lynn Lake and more than two dozen cabins in Burge Lake Provincial Park were destroyed. Nine area property owners — a man whose Burge Lake cottage was badly damaged as the wildlife spread, as well as eight people from the Rural Municipality of Lynn Lake who incurred expenses as a result of escaping the fire — filed the lawsuit in the Court of King’s Bench earlier this month.

The court filing accuses the Toronto-based gold producer’s MacLellan mine site of causing the wildfire via the controlled burn and argues the company should be held liable for the plaintiffs’ losses. “Alamos knew or ought to have known that there was a real and foreseeable risk that the burn could escape and cause damage to the surrounding community and neighbouring lands, which would necessitate the evacuation of community members,” the lawsuit claims. “Alamos knew or ought to have known that there was a real and foreseeable risk that the burn could escape and cause damage to the surrounding community and neighbouring lands.”

“The burn did escape from Alamos’ control, and as a result, the wildfire spread to the cottage, forced the immediate evacuation of the evacuees and caused the damages.” The company has disputed it is at fault for the fire in the past. A spokeswoman for Alamos did not immediately return a request for comment on Monday and the company has yet to respond to the claim in court.

If the court finds the company shouldn’t be held strictly liable for the wildfire, the lawsuit argues Alamos should instead be found to be negligent. The court papers argue Alamos owed the plaintiffs a duty to take reasonable steps to prevent the controlled burn escaping from the mine site, but breached that duty by failing to monitor and control the burn with “reasonable care, skill and diligence.” The lawsuit alleges the company was negligent in unsafely starting the burn, failing to properly assess weather and fire risk, failing to put in place proper fire control measures, failing to maintain adequate barriers or firebreaks, failing to monitor it and extinguish it.

Further, the court papers allege, Alamos failed to deploy sufficient personnel and equipment to maintain control of the burn, failed to adequately train and supervise those personnel, failed to report the burn in a timely manner and acted in a manner inconsistent with its duties under provincial wildfire legislation. In search warrant documents filed in court last year, provincial conservation investigators accused the company of negligence, alleging a contractor for Alamos conducting the controlled burns at the mining site earlier in May did not use water to douse the burn piles.

The company had a permit to burn brush piles between May 1 and May 15, but no burning occurred after May 3. The lawsuit seeks just under $95,000 combined in special damages for the property owners’ losses. The plaintiffs also seek unspecified general damages.

The Burge Lake property owner, Paul Grimmer, says damage to his cottage was just over $79,000. He’s also seeking costs for damaged personal property and further repair expenses. The evacuees — Trevor and Rosalie Kruzer, Shannon Roberts, Eugene and Ashtyn Shin, and Joanne and Marcel Ladouceur — incurred just under $15,500 in combined evacuation expenses, the court papers say.

Brent Ross, one of the lawyers representing the property owners, said the claim is in the process of being served on Alamos. erik.pindera@freepress.mb.ca Erik Pindera is a reporter for the Free Press, mostly focusing on crime and justice. The born-and-bred Winnipegger attended Red River College Polytechnic, wrote for the community newspaper in Kenora, Ont. and reported on television and radio in Winnipeg before joining the Free Press in 2020.

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