Wildfires in Saskatchewan have received some much-needed rain according to the Saskatchewan Public Safety Agency during their update on Sunday.
SPSA President Marlo Pritchard and Brian Chartrand executive director of land operations Bryan Chartrand conducted the daily update and both emphasized how the rain on fires helped the situation.
Pritchard said all fires received rain in the last 24 hours with more rainfall in the western part of the fire area and less in the eastern portion.
“This rain was very much appreciated and needed. But we cannot slow down and we’re not going to slow down. This is a time where we can take advantage of this small window of opportunity give us and our firefighter partners a small window of taking the fight directly to these fires while their intensity is lower,” Pritchard said.
Pritchard also called on community leaders to help the SPSA get Type 3 firefighters.
“I really want to call on those community leaders and help type 3 firefighters to start getting names of those that have qualified, those have been trained so that when we reach out over the next number of days that we can quickly access those trained firefighters,” Pritchard said.
According to Pritchard as of Sunday afternoon, there are 24 active fires, of these three are contained, six not contained, 12 are under ongoing assessment and three are under the protected values classification, with 254 reported since the start of the season, well above the five-year average of 143.
The Shoe Fire continues to be the largest fire in Saskatchewan. Chartrand said it’s sitting at around 500,000 hectares and did receive 22 millimetres of rain during the day on Saturday.
There are evacuations of Lower Fishing Lake, Pipperal Lake, East Trout Lake, Little Bear Lake, White Swan and Whelan Bay. Pritchard noted that there is a voluntary evacuation in place in Candle Lake and the RM of Paddockwood. Intermittent closures of highways at the junction of Highways 913 and 106, junction of 120 and 106, junction of 912 and 913, junction of 165 and 106, junction of 120 and 913.
“So we’re assessing the situation, looking for those hot zones and areas on these fires and we’ll be doing scans and moving personnel as needed to higher priority sectors of this fire,” Chartrand said.
He explained that they have teas at Little Bear working because the fire threat is gone and in the south end of the fire near Smeaton and Choiceland working so the fire does not progress south.
” I just mentioned and our priority on that fire is working northward on that west flank to have that secured so that it no longer jeopardises the communities of Candle Lake and White Swan,” Chartrand said.
The Jaysmith Fire northeast of Missinipe is at 136,876 hectares, and it also received some rain on Saturday. The community evacuated is Brabant Lake.
“And we have our crews out there assessing and again coming up with tactics and strategies on priorities that we need to engage here while this window of opportunity is upon us. So they are doing assessments at Brabant,” Chartrand said.
The Ditch Fire north of Weyakwin is approximately 150,000 hectare, Weyakwin , Ramsey Bay, Timber Bay and Molanosa have been evacuated. Highway 102 has been intermittentley closed due to fire and smoke.
The Pisew Fire west of La Ronge is estimated at around 159,000 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 102 and 910 and the junction of Highway 913 to 165 is closed and Highway 102 La Ronge to Sucker River is closed.
Chartrand said that staff is checking values in Hall Lake, La Ronge, Air Ronge and Sucker River and making sure there are no more hotspots.
” 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 again. So we just want to make sure that these values are protected,” Chartrand said.
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 and Highways 106 and 167.
According to Chartrand the Pelican2, Wolf and Club fires 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.
“Our main priority is the communities and infrastructure around those communities. We have our crews working in Denare Beach and Creighton putting out any hotspots, we have them working around along the roadway to assist the utility workers with SaskTel to repair the fibre optics line between the two communities as well. We’re still doing loss value assessments and documentation in the area,” Chartrand said.
The Pelican2 Fire near Pelican Narrows is listed as around 34,028 hectares. Pelican Narrows has been evacuated with high priority people 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 Manitoba.
“We’ve had minimal resources on this just because it hasn’t been threatening any values in in in the vicinity of within Saskatchewan, the southern perimeter, around Flint, Flon and Creighton has been very inactive for numerous days,” Chartrand said.
Pritchard said that there are 36 communities that have been evacuated and between 10,000 and 15,000 people are being supported by the Red Cross, SPSA or communities and other organizations.
Pritchard said that there are still 400 value including cabins, residences, lodges and vehicles that have been destroyed or damaged with 290 confirmed.
“But as we move into this coming week, our verification teams will start moving into those communities and starting assessing damages,” Pritchard said.
