Several fire departments and a modified crop-duster plane spent hours battling a brush fire as strong winds helped it spread up the edges of a valley near the western Manitoba community of St. Lazare earlier this week ... .
The extreme winds that caused damage and power outages around southern Manitoba on Thursday are also being blamed for igniting and fuelling fires ... .
An estimated 1,000 people have been without power in and around the town of Eastend for over 12 hours as harsh winds recorded at up to 97 km/h tore down power lines ... .