There’s still no end in sight for evacuees from Sandy Bay or Southend Sept. 2, according to Duane Hiebert, Peter Ballantyne Cree Nation’s (PBCN) emergency management director.
The Flanagan fire, while it hasn’t grown much in the last few days, is now more than 44,000 hec. in size.
Firefighters were pulled off the fire Sept. 1 as the fire was flaring up, but it calmed, allowing firefighters to return to the blaze Sunday evening, Hiebert said.
Calming down means the intensity of the fire lessened enough to put men back on the fireline, he said.
The fire remains out of control and a concern for the community.
“There are still come hotspots along there, but they are continuing to work,” Hiebert.
One of the concerns for the Flanagan fire is the difficulty it causes people trying to travel. Hiebert said it’s only 2.5 km from the access road to Sandy Bay.
There have been concentrated efforts in the area of Slim’s Cabins and it “jumped to some islands,” but, “they are reasonably confident that that portion will be contained,” Hiebert said, He added that the fire has been kept at the same distance for the past two days “so the confidence is there.”
There has been some backburn activity in the area of the hydro station, which is being viewed as successful and the fire hasn’t grown on the community side, but, “the potential is still there.”
“There’s no indication, no real timeline when it will be safe enough for the community members to return home,” Hiebert said.
The Merkley fire remains out of control, causing the road to Southend to be open and closed at different times.
It was opened for a period, but it could close again at any time.
“The risk is the fire could post a direct risk to the community within the next few days. Right now, it’s the access road in and out of the community, but the potential is there. It (the fire) is only 14 kms from the community,” Hiebert said.
There has been some activity, with the placement of a sprinkler system at Brabant and the highways camp forth of Brabant, he said.
The fire does seem to be moving away from the community and is on the north side.
Also connected with the Merkley fire, the Seabee mine was evacuated, by management and “they did return, and, now they had to evacuate again yesterday.” The evacuation was handled by helicopters provided by the Saskatchewan Public Safety Agency (SPSA), and all this is connected to the same fire, he said.
There are approximately 60 people from Southend who gone out onto the lake and some are remaining in the community, “some of which are essential services and those that didn’t want to leave, just want to stay put, [in Southend],” Hiebert said.
Evacuees are in different locations. There are two families in La Ronge, three in Flin Flon/Creighton, the majority in Saskatoon and a few in Regina, he said.
There was some talk of moving some to Moose Jaw, but the Canadian Red Cross (CRC) have been able to find accommodations without moving any to Moose Jaw.
While the Arm fire remains out of control, everyone evacuated from Deschambault has returned home.
