A provincewide fire ban has been lifted in Saskatchewan because of recent rain and cooler weather. However, that doesn’t mean the province is out of the woods.
“Some municipalities and provincial parks continue to experience a high fire risk in the north, as the area north of the Churchill River did not get widespread rains,” said Marlo Pritchard, Saskatchewan Public Safety Agency (SPSA) president. He told a news conference that means some northern communities will continue with local fire bans, depending on the situation.
One bright spot is that many of the areas that missed heavy rain are also very sparsely populated, which means fighting the fires in those regions is not as urgent.
“Our priorities include protecting human life, communities, major public infrastructure and commercial forest and other values,” said Pritchard.
While rain and cooler weather are helping, it’s been a bad spring for fires so far in the province.
Some of them are quite large. For example, Pritchard said the “Shaw fire” in the province’s northwest has burned over 133,000 hectares, which is nearly one-quarter the size of Prince Edward Island.
The “Vermette fire,” also in the northwest, is over 65,000 hectares. Several other fires are nearly as large.
“Most of the fires of concern received little precipitation,” said Steve Roberts, vice president of operations with SPSA. “The larger fires did get improved weather, higher humidity and light scattered showers.” That, said Roberts, allows firefighters some breathing room to do a more effective job of tackling them. “It does allow both equipment crews and aircraft to get into the fire farther. To do more controls … so we will see improvements on those fires, but not large amounts of change in the short term,” he added.
Heavy smoke has been affecting air quality in parts of the province, and the rain is expected to help. But some communities still have a lot of smoke, and Pritchard said SPSA has brought in air scrubbers to improve air quality.
“These devices allow communities to safely shelter in place,” he said, by improving air quality in places like schools, where people can take shelter. He said another ten are being shipped, with four being installed in schools, and the rest as needed.
Some evacuees are returning home, but others still cannot go back. Dozens remain in communities like Regina, Lloydminster, and North Battleford. As of May 24, roughly 200 people were still out of their homes, but officials caution numbers could change. The Meadow Lake Tribal Council (MLTC) is also supporting evacuees in several locations, and 281 people were still evacuated as of Wednesday evening.
People are being housed in a variety of facilities, but officials said they are doing their best to keep them comfortable.
“Our sites are always set up the same so we do have the meals, we have snacks, we have activities,” said Joan Hrycyk, director of emergency and community support with SPSA. She added they are also helping the MLTC with some logistical support for evacuees.
While the fire danger in much of central Saskatchewan is listed as either low or moderate, there is still a section in the far north listed as extreme, as well as a large region of southeast Saskatchewan.
