Conditions have been excellent at the Waskesiu townsite as the Buhl Fire continues to burn.
Waskesiu Community Council chair Jim Kerby said on Friday that the week was positive for that community.
“There was some significant success, I’d say, fighting the fire,” Kerby said. “The winds have been favourable and I think we’re starting to see some return to normalcy.”
Parks Canada reissued a pre-evacuation alert for Prince Albert National Park on July 26 due to the Buhl Wildfire that has potential to lower air quality and/or visibility due to wildfire smoke.
There was a lightning strike that caused a fire south of Waskesiu at Shady Lake and the Height of Land Tower but the fire was quickly brought under control.
“Thankfully that was identified early and the fire crews were on it quickly,” he said. “They continue to make sure that it’s fully under control, but they jumped on it right away.”
Kerby said the lightning strike and fire showed how important it is to immediately report fire and smoke. Kerby said it gives the crews the opportunity to jump on things before they get out of control.
“That’s what you’re hoping for, that somebody doesn’t just make an assumption that someone else will report that,” he said.
“I mean, the important thing is to is to get on it, make sure that the authorities know. At the moment we’ve got to an awful lot of personnel working this particular fire so it was relatively easy in comparison for them to be able to divert a bit of their attention towards this and deal with it right away.”
Kerby said the smoke situation has been quite tolerable in Waskesiu this week as well.
“I actually had travelled down to the Saskatoon area during the week and honestly, I thought that Waskesiu was maybe doing a bit better than Saskatoon,” he said. “I think that’s been the case throughout part of the summer, that other parts of the province have obviously been experiencing difficulty with wildfire smoke as well.
“I do think sometimes people make the assumption that just because you’re closer in proximity that it’s worse. It’s not always the case. It’s just the question mostly of wind directions, but also high and low pressure systems. There’s a lot of things that go into it,” he added.
He said that the winds this week have made the Buhl Fire more active on the north side which led to the evacuation of Ramsey Bay this week.
“(It’s) bad news on that front for that community, but I think they’re doing a fantastic job of trying to defend it. I think they’re feeling quite confident that they can do that,” Kerby said. According to Friday’s Parks Canada update, the Buhl Fire is currently less than a kilometer from Ramsey Bay, 12.5 kilometers from Montreal Lake, 30.6 kilometers from Waskesiu, 31.8 kilometers from Bittern Lake and 34.8 kilometers from Elk Ridge Kerby said crews have been able to make some progress on lines of containment on the south part of the fire.
“I think that that’s been good news for the communities like Waskesiu, McPhee, Elk Ridge etcetera that are closer to the south side,” he said. “It’s just luck of the draw in terms of wind direction.”
Elk Ridge and McPhee Lake do not currently have any alerts or orders in effect.
Kerby said that the unified command between the SPSA and Park Canada have done a great job on the fire.
He is also keeping communities on the north side of the fire at the front of mind.
“I want to recognize how much we’re keeping Ramsey Bay in our thoughts. I feel they’re very well defended by this excellent team, but Mother Nature can be unforgiving sometimes. We’re certainly hoping for the best for them,” Kerby said.
The Buhl Fire, first identified on June 29 was caused by a lightning strike and has burned approximately 86,806 hectares – 12,692 hectares within park boundaries and 74,114 hectares on provincial Crown land. Current resources assigned to the incident include 225 personnel (not including additional SPSA support staff), 12 helicopters, one infrared scanning drone and 11pieces of heavy equipment.
The Buhl Wildfire response also has access to additional air support as and when required, including air tankers and water tenders.
Fire activity has been increasingly challenging this week due to smoke and the warm, dry and windy conditions. Parks Canada, SPSA and the several other supporting agencies from across the country are working together on the Buhl Fire response.
michael.oleksyn@paherald.sk.ca
