REGINA - Officials with Saskatchewan Public Safety Agency were answering questions Wednesday about the confusion surrounding an evacuation of residents from La Loche on the weekend.
At their media briefing Wednesday, reporters sought answers about a situation Aug. 3 in which two buses of evacuees set to head out of La Loche had to be unloaded and evacuees sent home.
That evening the Northern Village of La Loche had posted this on Facebook about the situation:
“Mayor and Council met with the SPSA this evening to find out why they refused to send two of our busses to Regina. While we will be given more information tomorrow, this is what we know now:
1) The busses were not allowed to leave by SPSA because their policy on the reasons they will support an Evacuation are changing. Heavy smoke will no longer be a reason. There are too many communities that are experiencing this problem. Until they iron out the details, they decided to put support for our evacuees on hold. This does not apply to those that have already evacuated. Just the new ones.
2) It was strongly expressed to them that a policy decision like this should not be enacted mid-way through an evacuation. Especially with no consultation with the community.”
In the end, following discussions, it was decided for the buses to return and take the originally booked residents out, and that did take place.
During the SPSA media availability Wednesday, SPSA Vice President Steve Roberts was asked about the concerns raised and gave an explanation of what happened.
“So there was an email that had gone to community leaders talking about smoke evacuations particularly. That led to a discussion on whether buses should or should not be leaving the communities due to smoke.”
Roberts explained the SPSA was the support unit, and that they did hold buses back and ask people to disembark until discussions were done with community leadership on whether they wished to continue. He said they did wish to continue, even though "there was no direct fire threat."
As soon as they made their decision, Roberts said, SPSA continued to support them and they were evacuated.
Roberts said the premise and the concern at the time was “did they need to leave due to a smoke threat, a medical smoke threat to the community?”
“And part of that's related to when the Ministry of Health assessed some of those, it's not just the air quality, it's what services are available to that local community to provide respite for those folks that could be impacted. So there's a number of variables, and we at the Public Safety Agency don't make the medical decision. So if there's questions that they're leaving because of smoke and they would wish to support, we will support them and we move them. It is a community-based decision. The confusion that came (was) whether there was indeed a smoke threat and whether that should or should not impact their leaving the community. So that was clarified and rectified. So a couple of buses had left, a couple got put on hold and then those were reassumed and evacuations continued.”
As for who makes the decision to evacuate due to air quality, Roberts said the SPSA “do not do that. The health authorities have that information and make that decision and provide that advice directly to the communities. That is not a decision that the Public Safety Agency makes.”
Roberts noted the Public Agency has “done a lot of work and provided, for instance, fresh air shelters in most of our northern communities, which means that people could stay, but for instance, if they did not have an air conditioner in their house, they could go to a centralized place where the air is being cleaned with industrial air cleaners so that they have clean smoke and get some rest. And health guidelines will be provided, including curtailing outdoor activities, avoiding your outdoor time, keeping your doors and windows closed, so other preventative measures that may address the smoke issue without having to do an evacuation. And that does come from the Ministry of Health.”
Current wildfire situation
As for the current situation in the province, Roberts reported that there are 81 active fires in Saskatchewan at this time. There have been 448 fires so far this year, which is above the five-year average of 354 wildfires.
Roberts reports fire conditions have slightly improved.
“We have had scattered rain across the northern part of the province. That rain has not been significant. So we are seeing improved fire behaviour, but no significant change in overall outlook. As a result of that, we continue to put resources to these fires for containment, and that includes our out-of-province resources from Quebec, Mexico, Australia, British Columbia, Ontario, and Prince Edward Island. 190 Type 3 local firefighters are assisting, and we still have 300 Armed Forces personnel here in the province. They're here for two weeks, and we have asked and received a one-week extension for them to remain with us to continue their efforts.”
At this point in time, Roberts said 2.3 million hectares have been impacted by wildfire so far this year. Currently there are four highways impacted for travel: 955 north of La Loche, 914 to Pinehouse, 918 from Beauval to Patuanak, and 916 across the northern part of Prince Albert National Park. At this time about 3,000 individuals are displaced on evacuation and there are 13 active communities under evacuation. Five of those are for only P1s and P2s health-related, and the remaining eight are on full evacuation status.
The number of values impacted stands at 2,160. The majority of losses are in the Demare Beach area and East Trout Lake area.
Roberts adds that because of the rain, they will “look at reassessing the fire ban once we get some magnitude and impact of that rainfall and also a projection in the next two to 24 to 48 hours, and then we'll make a decision on either revising, extending, or revoking the fire ban.”
