Work is continuing on getting wildfires in Saskatchewan's north controlled, with the latest update from the Saskatchewan Public Safety Agency.
As of Yesterday afternoon, around 10-15 thousand people have been evacuated, with 30 communities seeing residents flee the fires. In northern Saskatchewan, 27 wildfires are currently raging, with six of those uncontained, another six contained, 12 undergoing assessment, and three protecting values. The total year-to-date number for wildfires is 246, nearly doubling the five-year average of 138.
In their update, the SPSA states that 267 properties have been lost to the fires, though as investigations continue, the true number could be higher, at around 400.
While a small amount of rain may help to temporarily stabilize the situation, SPSA Vice President of Operations Steven Roberts says more is needed if they want to see a real impact.
“A little bit of weather over a longer period of time will help the issue. A much larger amount over a shorter period of time (would help), but what isn’t helping is even a short event, three to five millimetres, followed by the heat coming in behind. It is really just giving us a short-term reprieve.”
The Shoe fire remains the largest active wildfire, growing to over 471,000 hectares, currently uncontained. That fire has destroyed approximately 11 million acres of forest.
As the situation continues, Roberts urges people to make the right decisions when it comes time to evacuate.
“We have a number of people that we are going to evacuate, and we’ve advised them to evacuate, and they refuse. The issue becomes, will we have to do an emergency rescue? But, if the firefighting community says it’s too risky to be on site, then you should probably heed that advice and think about leaving when they ask you to leave your premises, because the risk is too high to stay.”
While northern Saskatchewan is the main front for wildfires, continuing dry conditions in much of southern Saskatchewan mean that a wildfire could also spring up south of the Trans Canada Highway.