Saskatchewan Public Safety Agency (SPSA) officials won’t know until Tuesday just how many houses, cabins, vehicles or sheds burned in the community of Denare Beach, but they expect that number to be in the hundreds.
SPSA vice-president of operations Steve Roberts said they will have a full count of all values lost in the community by the end of the day Tuesday. The SPSA has counted more than 350 structures lost due to wildfire. Roberts said he expects that total to reach more than 500 after the Denare Beach assessment.
“Mother Nature was not helping us there,” Roberts said when asked if anything could have been done differently to prevent the losses in Denare Beach. “I’ll be fairly honest, there may be situations that are beyond our capacity.”
Roberts said crews in the area faced wildfires that were pushed by 50-60 km/hr winds. Often, he said, the fire spread by leaping from tree-top to tree-top, which gave crews little chance to contain it.
“There’s not a person on the ground, a bulldozer available, (or) air tanker, that can slow those fires down,” Roberts said. “You see that behaviour. You’ve seen in California. You’ve seen it on some of the B.C. wildfires. There will be wildfires that cannot be wrestled to the ground.”
However, Roberts said that doesn’t mean there isn’t room for improvement. He said the SPSA uses their initial attack program to identify fires near communities as early as possible. While they aim for a 100 per cent success rate, he said fire management strategies still need to be in place as a contingency.
“People who live and reside around the forest have to expect that somewhere at some time, they could have a fire encroachment,” he said. “Is their community fire safe and ready? Is their fire department trained to manage those (fires)? Are their houses built of materials that will resist those ember storms we saw in Denare Beach? There’s a number of exercises we could take, but … could we collectively do more? Yes we can.”
SPSA officials have already finished their assessment of the nearby East Trout Lake area, where more than 350 structures have burned. That total does not include equipment like boats, quads, or ATVs.
Denare Beach is one of five communities still under evacuation as of Monday afternoon. Roughly 10,000 evacuees have returned home or are in the process of returning home.
SPSA president Marlo Pritchard said that means the organization will soon start shifting into its recovery phase. That includes meeting with northern administrators to discuss how best to distribute the $500 the province promised to deliver those forced to evacuate their primary residence.
“We will be working with those affected over the coming weeks and probably in all fairness over the coming months as we go through a rebuilding phase,” Pritchard told reporters.
In an update on Monday, the Northern Village of Denare Beach reported that water and sewer services had been restored in the community, and SaskTel employees arrived to being restoring phone lines.
The SPSA has started nightly hotspot scanning with an infrared drone, according to the update, but as of Monday there is still no official date for evacuees to return.
Peter Ballantyne Cree Nation leadership held an emergency meeting on Saturday to focus on emergency response, accommodations and evacuations support, and mental health and community gathering. PBCN Emergency Operations Centre (EOC) meetings for Denare Beach were set to resume on Monday, PBCN reported on its Facebook page.
“Recovery planning is underway, and community safety remains central,” reads the PBCN update. “We thank everyone working tirelessly to support our people. No one has been reported missing, and we continue to pray for all affected families as we move toward healing and rebuilding.”
Provincial cabinet ministers Tim McLeod and Eric Schmalz recently flew over some of the communities impacted by the fires, including Denare Beach, to assess the damage.
McLeod said the government will assist “in whatever way is necessary” as northerners begin to rebuild.
“It was a very powerful experience to fly over, specifically, the community of Denare, which suffered the most significant losses,” McLeod said during a media availability on Monday. “I want to acknowledge those losses of property and homes and businesses in that community, but at the same time, I want to express our huge thanks to the frontline staff, the firefighters, the volunteers, and the community members who were able to successfully protect large numbers of properties in other communities and save a lot of the properties in that community.”
Monday’s fire update showed few changes as fire crews work to take advantage of the high rain fall levels over the past few days.
Roberts said there are no significant changes to the Shoe Fire, Jaysmith Fire, Pisew Fire, or Wolf Fire, which is burning near Denare Beach. However, the rain and cooler weather means fire crews were able to contain the Pelican2 Fire and Ditch Fire, meaning neither are expected to spread.
Roberts said crews were able to contain the Pelican2 Fire because it ran up against a lake, which limited its spread. There were other areas where it ran up against fire areas from several years ago with little in the way of fuel.
The north received enough rain for public safety officials to rescind the northern fire ban as of 5 p.m. on Monday. Roberts said they hope to make further gains in the north, but stressed that the good weather was only temporary.
“At some point this summer it is going to warm up again,” he said.
Aside from Denare Beach, the communities of Creighton, East Trout Lake, and Whelan Bay are still under full evacuation orders. Cumberland House also still has an evacuation order for P1 and P2 residents.
