Prince Albert healthcare experts urged the public to take precautionary measures on Friday as smoke from the northern wildfires blanketed the city.
Lyle Karasiuk of Parkland Ambulance Care Ltd. said they were seeing a small uptick in calls due to the smoke, primarily from people with chronic lung conditions. He urged residents to keep their windows closed and stay indoors heading into the weekend.
“We want folks to heed the warnings,” he said. “If the weather networks or public safety or whatever app, you might, subscribe to tells you it’s a poor air quality, then it’s probably a good idea to listen to them.”
Karasiuk said if you see the haze then resident should stay indoors limit outdoor activity as much as possible.
“If you just need to run to do a few quick errands, great, but it’s not working in the garden, going for a run, walking the dog, painting your house, or all the activities you want to do outside because it is difficult to breathe even for people who don’t have any respiratory conditions.”
Karasiuk said Parkland paramedics found the conditions difficult on Friday. They used n95 masks when answering calls to help filter out some of the smoke and make breathing more bearable.
Karasiuk said the smoke will be an irritant to people with regular healthy lungs, but it can cause serious health problems for residents with breathing problems. The best advice he can give is to stay indoors and keep the windows closed.
“If you do have to be outside and you do have to be out for an extended time, consider getting an n95 that’s properly fitted. That’s probably your best protection that you can have on smoky days,” he said.
“(If) you are someone who has a chronic breathing problem, or you find that you just can’t catch your breath because of the smoke, you’re going to need to seek some medical attention,” Karasiuk added. “Certainly those people who have chronic breathing ailments are having to use things like what we call a ‘puffer’ more often, but if that’s not giving you the relief you need, obviously you could start by calling 811, the Saskatchewan health information help line, (or) visit your local doctor’s office clinic.”
For anything more serious, Karasiuk advised residents to call 911.
Karasiuk said the smoke began rolling into Prince Albert Friday morning and that’s resulted in more calls for service due to breathing problems. He said that trend will continue if the smoke stays.
“We want people to just take care, and as best you can, stay indoors,” he said.
Prince Albert on pace for third driest May on record
It’s been a historically dry spring in Prince Albert.
Data from Environment and Climate Change Canada (ECCC) shows the Prince Albert area received just two milometers of rain from May 1 to May 28. Barring an unexpected downpour on Saturday, ECCC Senior Meteorologist Danielle Desjardins that trend is enough to make this month Prince Albert’s third driest May on record.
“Overall, the province has been extremely, extremely dry this month,” Desjardins said during a phone interview on Friday.
It’s been over 100 years since Prince Albert saw so little precipitation in the month of May. Desjardins said the driest May on record came in 1888, when 0.3 mm were recording. The second driest came in 1924, when exactly one millimetre was recorded.
Desjardins said they’re predicting a warmer than average spring and summer, but predicting precipitation levels is a bit trickier than predicting temperatures.
In the short-term, Desjardins said Prince Albert won’t see any rain, but that may change in a week.
“We have that low pressure system moving into northern Saskatchewan on Sunday through Monday, but not a lot of precipitation for Prince Albert,” she said. “Most of that precipitation is going to fall well north of any of the ongoing wildfire areas.
“Looking all through next week, Monday through Friday looks dry, but there is a little bit of an indication right now of those patterns changing by later on in the week into the weekend. We could see some precipitation by the (June 7-8) weekend, but it’s still a little bit far out to say with a lot of certainty.”
–with files from Jason Kerr/Daily Herald
