REGINA - Conditions have improved in the efforts to combat wildfires in Saskatchewan, so much so that the fire ban has been lifted and three major fires are now listed as contained.
According to the latest update from Saskatchewan Public Safety Agency, they report 79 active wildfires in Saskatchewan and of those six are categorized as contained, 11 not contained, 40 ongoing assessment, and 22 are listed as protecting values.
To this point there have been 466 wildfires, which is above the five-year average of 372.
SPSA President Marlo Pritchard said they have “seen some widespread precipitation in the north over the last 24 hours, so we are seeing improved conditions.”
With those improved conditions, he said, the fire ban has been removed as of 11 p.m., Aug. 13 on all areas and all Crown lands located north of the provincial forest boundary and up to the Churchill River.
Vice President of Operations Steve Roberts said that over the last three to four days, all areas of the northern forest received between 5 and 20 ml of rain.
“That has increased our ability to contain these fires and accomplish more and has also reduced the risk of these fires to local communities and infrastructure.”
As a result, said Roberts, the Ditch Fire, the Shoe Fire, and the Wolf Fire are all now listed as contained.
That means that “we do not expect them to have any further growth or expansion at this time. Crews continue to work on mopping those up. At this time, there are no highway closures related to wildfire. There are some advisories for potential smoky conditions, but no longer any closures.”
Roberts said the definition of contained “means that we do not expect under these conditions the fire to grow in size. So if it won't grow in size, it also does not pose any new additional risks.
“But that does not mean the fires are out and it does not mean that activity has stopped. It just means that we can get type ones, type threes and type threes on contained fire line because it is more secure. We can make more headway. Likely the tactics will change. You won't see the need for heavy water bombers, for instance, or heavy helicopters because they're better behaviour and that's why we're releasing those type of assets. But we are retaining our type two and type three and type one support from outside the province to continue to work on containment of these fires and the other ones that are still burning today in the province.”
Less need for out-of-province support
Roberts said that as a result of this change in conditions, they have released the air tankers that they have been receiving support from, two of them from Quebec. Two of the heavy helicopters have now been released as well.
“We have renewed the Canadian Armed Forces contingent of 300 firefighters, but have released their three helicopter support aircraft at this time. And our Australian partners are heading home after a long deployment here in Saskatchewan, but still remaining on the fire line we have support from Quebec, Parks Canada, Ontario, Yukon, Mexico, and North Dakota.”
Four communities are currently under evacuation order and another one that has evacuated their priority one and priority two individuals. Those are the northern hamlet of Jans Bay, La Plonge Indian Reserve, Patuanak - English River First Nation, and the northern village of Pinehouse.
The northern village of Beauval had and has still evacuated some of their priority one and priority two individuals and four other communities have had their evacuations orders lifted and residents have started to or have returned home. Those are the resort subdivision of Lac La Plonge, the resort subdivision of Little Amyot Lake, Île-à-la-Crosse, Canoe Lake, and Canoe Narrows. There is still an estimated 1,100 individuals that are still evacuated in the province at this point.
SPSA has also reported their recovery task team continues to work with communities that were impacted by the wildfires and we have had individuals up in the Denare Beach area as of this week. They report 500 individuals have accessed the resiliency center set up in Denare Beach, and the community has contracted contractors to do cleanup and debris management and that work started on July 23. Approximately 100 of the 216 lots have had debris removed.
As for what they expect the rest of this fire season, Roberts said they have “a cooler wet period right now. At this time of year, we also see that the days are actually getting shorter and we're getting better night temperatures, which are helping the fires.”
“So we would expect in a normal end of fire season, having these fires, you know, make progress towards containment, some ultimately to be called out as we get into the fall. And as that happens, we will be able to release first external supports and then ultimately our own supports. However, if we still need them, we will extend our own staff and our own crews here in Saskatchewan. And if we still need external support, we will indeed call it and use it as long as it's required.”
As for the lifting of the fire ban, Roberts said that with the precipitation, the risks of starting a new fire from a campfire or a spark is reduced. But he noted it could still warm up and dry out in the coming days.
“People still need to be cautious,” said Roberts. “They still need to follow best practice, whether they're in a park or outside of a park on making sure that we don't start any bonfires in addition to the fires we've already had this year.”
When asked if this was the worst fire season he had ever seen, Roberts noted 38 communities were evacuated at some point, “so that is more communities than 2015.” As well the area that was impacted by fire was very much concentrated in the southern half of the northern forest, “which is where the bulk of our population resides in the forest.”
“So in past years, large fires may have only threatened one or two communities.Those same fires have obviously threatened many, many communities. And we've seen one of the largest losses of homes and structures in a number of years, and that's at Denare Beach and East Trout Lake," Roberts said.
