The number of structures destroyed and communities evacuated continues to grow in Saskatchewan according to the Saskatchewan Public Safety Agency (SPSA).
The Tri-Community area of La Ronge, Lac La Ronge and Air Ronge were evacuated Monday as the Ditch Fire surrounded the communities.
Premier Scott Moe acknowledged the number of evacuations have been growing in Saskatchewan in recent days.
“I’ve talked to each of the community leaders last night, as well as some this morning, and we have some challenging days ahead of us,” Moe said.
“The weather doesn’t appear to be changing in the near future,” he added.
Moe was speaking during a joint press conference alongside SPSA President Marlo Pritchard, Vice-President of Operations Steve Roberts and Minister Responsible for First Nations, Metis, and Northern Affairs Eric Schmalz.
As of Tuesday afternoon, Pritchard said, there are 20 active fires, of which eight are contained, six are not contained, four are under ongoing assessment and one is under the protected values classification, with 229 reported since the start of the season, well above the five-year average of 132.
Moe said he talked to follow Premiers Wab Kinew of Manitoba and Danielle Smith of Alberta at the recent First Ministers Conference in Saskatoon. He said all three provinces face similar challenges.
“I can assure all Saskatchewan residents that if there are any resources across this nation, they are being made available for the three prairie provinces,” Moe said. “The resources of the federal government as well are being made available for the prairie provinces to support those in the north who are facing these wildfires head on and to support all Saskatchewan residents.
“One of the efforts that we are stepping forward with alongside Manitoba and alongside the federal government is to partner with the Red Cross in supporting our evacuees. We’re providing $15 million from the Province of Saskatchewan, Canadian Red Cross to support the work of the SPSA,” he added.
On Monday, the SPSA verified 163 confirmed values losses including homes, cottages and other structures. That number jumped to 400 on Tuesday.
Pritchard said that his thoughts and prayers were with everyone who has been impacted
“There’s a number of individuals that have lost property,” he said. “We’ve had a number of individuals evacuated, families have evacuated, and they are waiting to hear whether their property has been impacted. To everyone who has had to flee these fires, I really just want to know that that we at the SPSA and myself, our hearts and thoughts are with you.”
Pritchard said Monday was a challenging day for firefighters because they had to flee some areas due to the aggressive fire behaviour.
“They had to get out of the way for their own safety,” Pritchard said. “We did see that yesterday and I expect that today and tomorrow we’re going to continue to see high winds and some very challenging conditions for our firefighters.”
Pritchard also thanked the firefighters from the SPSA, local volunteer fire departments in affected communities, and the municipal fire departments who volunteered to help.
“We have new fire departments up to La Ronge and to Creighton. We have others that are waiting to get deployed. We’re working with our first responders, … we are working with First Nations Emergency Management, and we’re doing everything humanly possible to mitigate and reduce future losses, protect life and property,” Pritchard said.
He also thanked all the citizens of Saskatchewan for the support they have been giving the firefighters. He said several firefighters told him that individuals and communities had been giving out food or water.
“It is absolutely appreciated and needed on these challenging times, so again, thank you,” he said.
“We’re going to continue to see some challenges over the next couple days. I can confirm that we’ve lost about over 400 structures to date and we’re going to continue to do our best to minimize future losses.”
Pritchard said they expect to see more losses in the future because of how the fires are behaving.
“We will continue to do everything possible just to minimize the impacts and wait for the rain that we know is going to come, but we just don’t know when that will be.”
Roberts said Monday was a very busy and extreme day for the SPSA. Currently there are more than 30 communities and well over 9,000 people who had been evacuated. Earlier in the day Moe said that number was 15,000 and Roberts clarified that by the end of the day on Tuesday the number could reach that.
Roberts said that the largest impact on the structures lost was from Denare Beach and La Ronge.
The Shoe Fire near Lower Fishing Lakes remains the largest fire at 470,000 hectares and did not grow extensively over Monday night, although Hwy 969 did have to be shut down. The SPSA focused on protecting Highway 2 north and a full escort was set up to get people through. This occurred just before the evacuation order was put in place for La Ronge.
“Still lots of perimeter fire, lots of active fire there,” Roberts said.
The Jay Smith Fire north of Missinippi is impacting Highway 102 but traffic can move through. It has led to the evacuations of Brabant Lake and is currently estimated at 38,000 hectares.
The Ditch Fire north of Weyakwin has caused closures and partial closures of Highway 2 and Highway 969 and is 70,000 hectares. Whelan Bay, Ramsey Bay, Timber Bay and Molanosa have been evacuated. The fire threatens Highway 2 North and Highway 969.
The PISU Fire west of La Ronge was the major event on Monday. It is estimated at 80,000 hectares and has led to evacuations of Hall Lake, Wadin Bay, Sucker River, English Bay and Nemeiben along with the Tri-Community.
The growth had SPSA personnel return to Hall Lake to protect structures from the fire flaring up.
“While that was occurring the fire continued to move eastward, towards the communities of English Bay, La Ronge, Air Ronge, Lac La Ronge, Wadin Bay, Sucker River and Nemeiben Lake. That triggered a full evacuation of those communities, except for essential services, personnel,” Roberts said.
The fire also impacted the La Ronge airports and the SPSA lost their tanker base.
“We’re in the process of re-establishing that post-fire so we can continue operations out of La Ronge. None of the warehousing or aircraft that are managed by the public safety agency were damage,” Roberts said.
The SPSA has other tanker bases in places like Prince Albert that are available for us.
The Wolf Fire west of Denare Beach has burned through the community of Denare Beach and is now in Manitoba according to Roberts.
“Yesterday afternoon we evacuated all personnel out of the Town of Denare Beach. We have reports of multiple structures, significant structural damage throughout the community right now, and we will continue to reassess. All of our staff are now in Creighton supporting what fire activities they can from there until we can be re-established,” Roberts said.
The Pelican 2 Fire north of Pelican Narrows has led to the evacuation of that community and has impacted Highway 135 which is the access to both Pelican Narrows and Sandy Bay.
The fire is estimated at 20,000 hectares but Roberts said it has grown but has yet to be mapped by the SPSA.
“It has been fairly stable in the Pelican area due to work prior by the agency,” he explained. “We do have some issues in the vicinity of the Jan Lake subdivision where we continue to support those and prevent fires.”
The Club Fire near Creighton and Flin Flon is approximately 17,000 hectares in Saskatchewan and 60,000 hectares in Manitoba.
“We are partnered with Manitoba in a Joint Command scenario to protect Denare Beach, Creighton and Flin Flon,” Roberts said.
In previous reports the Club Fire was reported as 25,000 hectares and today it was reported as 17,000 hectares.
“We had not mapped the Creighton fire of course and up into this point we haven’t been reporting on the Manitoba side, but we have mapped our side, so it did go from the estimate of 25,0000 to 17,000, included what’s actually happening in Manitoba,” Roberts said.
Moe encouraged people to reach out to the SPSA toll free line at 1-855-559-5502 and any other ways to support themselves.
michael.oleksyn@paherald.sk.ca
