Wildfires in Saskatchewan have received some much-needed rain over the weekend according to the Saskatchewan Public Safety Agency during their update on Monday.
SPSA Vice-President Steve Roberts and Minister of Corrections, Policing and Public Safety Tim McLeod conducted the daily update. Both emphasized that the rain on Saturday gave firefighters some relief.
“Looking at the fires of concerned, even though we have received some much-wanted precipitation, these fires continue to get work to secure them,” Roberts said.
“Recently. We’ve received some very beneficial rains and cooperative weather and that coupled with significant efforts from our firefighters and our frontline staff is resulting in progress and some positive developments,” McLeod said.
The community of Weyakwin has had the evacuation lifted and the SPSA continues to work with community leadership to repatriate people to their home communities as conditions allow.
McLeod also said the Foran mine site is no longer under threat.
“The company anticipates a full return to the site by this coming Friday and we are very encouraged by that,” he said. “We are very optimistic that more communities will indeed be returning home in the days and weeks ahead. We look forward to that progress.”
McLeod said the province continues to be in daily contact with federal ministers to discuss resources. That list includes the Minister of Public Safety and Minister of Emergency Management. McLeod said he spoke with both Monday moring.
“I can’t restate this enough. I know the Premier has said it and Marlo has said it. This isn’t a situation where we’re not asking for assistance or they’re not offering assistance. It’s simply a situation where we need the needs that we have to align with what they’re offering. We continue to have those conversations daily to find that alignment and we’re encouraged by those ongoing conversations.”
As the recovery process is beginning in some communities, McLeod said the province has identified ways that the federal government can support those efforts.
“The SPSA has made a request to the federal government to provide two base camps to support our crews and have also made a request for tents for sheltering up to 200 people,” McLeod said. “Those requests have been communicated to the federal government. We’re optimistic that we’ll hear response back shortly in that regard.
“This is a really a positive change in in what we’ve been seeing,” McLeod added. “We’re now turning a corner, I would say, and optimistic. (There’s) still much work to be done, but (we’re) preparing for that next phase, making sure that we are ahead of the clean-up efforts and the rebuilding efforts that we know are to come.”
McLeod thanked the work done by all of the frontline staff including firefighter and SaskTel and SaskPower staff working to restore power and phone services.
“We have some just incredible efforts and courageous efforts, I would say, being made by these staff to get back into very dangerous zones, to restore power, to restore communications, and I want to take this opportunity to thank and recognise all of those folks who are doing
just some, some tremendously valuable work keeping our community safe and indeed saving lives,” McLeod said.
As of Monday afternoon, there are 24 active fires. Of these, five are contained, six are not contained, 12 are under ongoing assessment and two are under the protected values classification, with 256 reported since the start of the season, well above the five-year average of 145.
The Shoe Fire continues to be the largest fire in Saskatchewan. Roberts said it’s sitting at more than 500,000 hectares and received 22 millimetres of rain during the day on Saturday.
There are still evacuation orders for Lower Fishing Lake, Pipperal Lake, East Trout Lake, Little Bear Lake, White Swan and Whelan Bay.
On Sunday, Pritchard noted that there is a voluntary evacuation in place in Candle Lake and the RM of Paddockwood. Closures of Highway 912 and 913 are still in place.
Bryan Chartrand executive director of land operations, said on Sunday that the SPSA is assessing the situations to find higher priority sections of the fire.
Chartrand said they have teams at Little Bear working because the fire threat is gone and in the south end of the fire near Smeaton and Choiceland. Crews are working so the fire does not progress south.
The Jaysmith Fire northeast of Missinipe is at 136,876 hectares. That fire also received some rain on Saturday. The community evacuated is Brabant Lake. Chartrand said on Sunday that they are working on assessments at Brabant Lake.
The Ditch Fire north of Weyakwin is approximately 153,100 hectare, Ramsey Bay, Timber Bay and Molanosa have been evacuated. Highway 969 has been intermittently closed due to fire and smoke.
The Pisew Fire west of La Ronge is estimated at around 181,000 hectares. The fire has forced the evacuation of Besnard Lake, Hall Lake, Sucker River, Clam Lake, Wadin Bay, Lac La Ronge, Air Ronge, and La Ronge.
According to the SPSA, the fire is impacting Highways 2 and 102,
“We have our values protection teams continuing to work there in case these fires were to pick up again if we get some hot dry weather,” Chartrand said on Sunday. “We just want to make sure that these values are protected.”
The Wolf Fire that started west of Denare Beach is estimated at 130,822 hectares, and forced the evacuation of Jan Lake, Denare Beach and the McIlveena Mine Site. It also impacted Highways 106 and 167.
According to Chartrand the Pelican2, Wolf and Club fire have merged but the SPSA is still keeping the names separate.
Chartrand said that lower temperatures and relative humidity have decreased the intensity of the fires.
The Pelican2 Fire near Pelican Narrows is listed as around 34,028 hectares. High priority residents in Pelican Narrows have been evacuated. The fire reached Highway 135 near the bridge and traffic has been restricted in and out of Pelican Narrows. There are also still power outages in that area.
The Club Fire near Creighton and Flin Flon is approximately 17,327 hectares in Saskatchewan and 60,537 hectares in total in Manitoba and Saskatchewan.
“We’ve had minimal resources on this just because it hasn’t been threatening any values … within Saskatchewan. The southern perimeter, around Flint, Flon and Creighton has been very inactive for numerous days,” Chartrand said on Sunday.
Roberts said that there are 33 communities that have been evacuated either fully or partially.
“As of today, 10,262 persons are being supported by the Canadian Red Cross on evacuation status 860 by the Public Safety Agency, plus numerous individuals who self-evacuated that are staying with families and friends and may be receiving intermittent supports from either agency,” Roberts said.
Roberts said that there are still 400 value including cabins, residences, lodges and vehicles that have been destroyed or damaged with 295 confirmed. Pritchard said on Sunday that verification teams will move into communities to start assessing damages.
Due to fires, 33 communities are on evacuation status and that may be full, partial or limited evacuations in some situations.
michael.oleksyn@paherald.sk.ca
