PRINCE ALBERT - The communities in the La Ronge area are now a prime concern as the wildfire situation continues to bear down on northern Saskatchewan.
At their daily briefing Tuesday, officials with Saskatchewan Public Safety Agency were reporting damage in the La Ronge area to the airport and including to their own dispatch base. There are also widespread reports of power outages as well as cell and phone outages, and also some structure losses in the North including in Denare Beach.
“Yesterday was an extremely challenging day for our firefighters,” said SPSA President Marlo Pritchard.
Pritchard said many of their firefighters “had to flee as their fire behaviour was… extremely extreme, I guess, behaviour. And it was so aggressive that they had to get out of the way for their own safety."
Weather conditions are not helping. Pritchard said he expects that “today and tomorrow we're going to continue to see high winds and some very, very challenging conditions for our firefighters.”
As of Tuesday, SPSA is reporting 20 active wildfires in the province. Eight are categorized as contained, six are ongoing assessment, and one is to protect values.
To date Saskatchewan has had 229 wildfires, well over the five-year average of 132.
The number of structures lost to the wildfires is now well into the hundreds. SPSA Vice-President of Operations Steve Roberts reported more than 400 values have been lost to wildfire. More than 30 communities in Saskatchewan are currently in evacuation.
The fires of note are as follows:
The SHOE fire is now 407,000 hectares yesterday, and both Timber Bay and Molanosa have been evacuated. As well, the secondary highway 969 was shut down due to the fire.
“That forced us to put all our parties on protecting the highway to the north, and we've gone to full escort to get people through. And that was just put into place before the evacuation order was called on La Ronge,” said Roberts.
The JAYSMITH Fire near Brabant Lake, remains a threat to the town of Brabant Lake and to Highway 102 north.
The HITCH fire is now 70,000 hectares and threatens the Highway 2 north and Highway 969.
The PISEW Fire is located west of La Ronge and as of this morning was 83,000 hectares in size. Roberts said this was the big event into the afternoon and right through the evening.
“The growth of that fire had us returning to Hall Lake to protect community structures there from the fire flaring up. But while that was occurring, the fire continued to move eastward towards the communities of English Bay, La Ronge, Air Ronge, Lac La Ronge, Wadin Bay, Sucker River, and Neimeban Lake. That triggered a full evacuation of those communities except for essential services personnel.”
Roberts said the fire also impacted the airport in La Ronge and that SPSA has lost its air tanker base there, which is used to dispatch the aircraft.
“We are in the process of re-establishing that post-fire so we can continue operations out of La Ronge. None of the warehousing or aircraft that are managed by the Public Safety Agency were damaged by the fire, however, and are still serviceable for use.”
The WOLF Fire west of Denare Beach is now no longer west of Denare Beach. Roberts said it has gone through Denare Beach and is now currently in Manitoba.
“So yesterday afternoon, we evacuated all personnel out of the town of Denare Beach. We have reports of multiple structures, significant structural damage throughout the community right now. And we will continue to reassess. All staff are now in Creighton, supporting what fire activities they can from there until we can be re-established.”
Finally the PELICAN2 fire now estimated at 20,000 hectares in size, and Roberts reports it has been fairly stable in the Pelican area due to work prior by the agency.
Premier Scott Moe was at the news conference and noted the gravity of the situation.
“As Steve has said, we've been evacuating a number of communities in the last number of days,” Moe said. And as we know, last night, the significant evacuation of the Tri-Cities, Lac La Ronge and Air Ronge. I talked to each of the community leaders last night, as well as some this morning.
“We have some challenging days ahead of us. We aren't through this and the weather doesn't appear to be changing in the near future. Today, we're probably approaching the neighbourhood of 15,000 people that have been evacuated across the province and are now being supported in communities throughout Saskatchewan. More families are leaving their homes as we speak."
Premier Moe thanked those who were offering help and assistance.
"Thank you to all of the volunteers that have been involved in that evacuation. Thank you to all of the SPSA folks that are supporting that evacuation. Highways workers, everyone. Thank you to the community leaders and the folks that are fighting these fires on the front lines.
“In places like La Roche, in places like Creighton, many families are leaving their home and they don't know if they're going to see it again. They don't know if they're going to have the opportunity to go back there. They aren't just buildings. These are places where they have raised their family or are currently raising their family. They're not just structures that are nailed together.”
Moe spoke of the loss of the dispatch base in La Ronge. He said an administration trailer is going up to La Ronge so they can continue to dispatch their tanker aircraft, and he reiterated no aircraft were lost and backup plans were in place.
He also acknowledged a number of power outages in many communities in the North. Moe said Manitoba and Alberta were having similar challenges and the three provinces were working together to address the challenges.
“I can assure all Saskatchewan residents that if there are any resources across this nation that they are being made available for the three prairie provinces. And the resources of the federal government as well are being made available for the prairie provinces and to support those in the north that are facing these wildfires head on and to support all Saskatchewan residences.”
