Property owner Bev Gollan has been down this road before.
Nine years ago, Gollan lost her house to a fire. On Thursday, her house was still standing, but everything else in her yard had burned as wildfires continue to sweep through rural areas north of Prince Albert.
“I’m good now, but the first day you’re numb,” Gollan said in an interview on Friday. “I went down this road nine years ago and I lost just my house to a fire, so it was like déjà vu all over.
“This time, those firemen were absolutely incredible. I’ve got nothing but praise and awe for them because I’ve still got me house. The rest of the yard is gone. Granaries, two garages, shop, all gone. It’s all leveled.”
Gollan was away from home when she received a message between 3:30 and 4 p.m. saying her house was on fire. By the time she arrived back home, everything except her house had burned.
She doesn’t know yet how much it will cost her to rebuild. She’s just thankful those efforts won’t have to include building another house.
“By some miracle—grace of God—my house is still standing. The siding is a little rough looking,” she said.
Gollan said the blaze created a natural fire guard around her house, so although wildfires are still active in her section of land, she’s not worried about her house. Still, she said, stranger things have happened.
“I should be safe, but you know what? Given what we went through here, never say never because that wind changes on the snap of the fingers, and then it’s going the other way,” she said.
Living through a second fire in her hard in less than a decade has convinced Gollan more needs to be done to mitigate fire risks on public and private lands. She said there is always a fire risk during dry seasons, but dried bushes and branches needed to be cleared from vulnerable areas, like around power lines.
The Saskatchewan Public Safety Agency has issued a fire ban for all the area north of the provincial forest boundary and up to the Churchill River due to dry conditions and large amounts of fire activity and extreme fire risk.
On Friday, SPSA Director of Land Operations Bryan Chartrand said human activity is the primary cause of wildfires, and he urged residents to remember these fires are entirely preventable.
“Actions like not driving on dry grass, drowning camp fires until embers are cool, and talking to your children about fire safety, this can make a large impact on the number of fires in our province,” he said.
As of Friday morning, there were 24 active wildfires in the province, 12 of which were contained, nine not contained, and the rest undergoing assessment.
So far, the province has had 19 more wildfires in 2025 compared to the year before.
