SASKATCHEWAN — The Saskatchewan Public Safety Agency says the current active fire list is at 15, of which nine have not been contained. That brings the total fires so far this year to 214.
About 8,000 people have been evacuated due to fires, with two more communities added today: Timber Bay and Molanosa, near Montreal Lake. Individuals were asked to self-evacuate through Highways 969 and 2 and make their way to Regina.
The SPSA says the evacuee number is only an estimate, as more than one entity is involved in the evacuations.
On the plus side, SPSA said this afternoon between 250 and 500 people have been able to return to Canoe Lake.
With windy conditions and aggressive fire activity, the SPSA expects the estimates currently set for the size of the fires in Saskatchewan to increase. The SPSA has its own weather unit that provides forecasts at the fire level, allowing operation people to respond to shifting winds that can be dangerous to responders and cause necessary changes in strategy.
Lack of rain has also allowed fires to continue growing, even merging.
North of Creighton, the 25DB-CLUB fire is out of control, with 25,000 acres involved just on the Saskatchewan side of the border. The SPSA said this afternoon in an online media availability that it will have grown today, based on the fire activity overnight. The SPSA is not aware that the fire has entered the Creighton and Denare Beach communities, but it is adjacent and responders there are trying to hold it back to prevent any structural losses.
Resources deployed, according to the online situation update are Type 1 Crew Members, Type 2 Crews, Helicopter Support, Creighton Fire Department, Flin Flon Fire Department, Air Tanker Support. Creighton and Denare Beach are under evacuation alerts.
As a result of the fire, Highway 106 is closed from Junction 135 to Creighton and there is a power outage in Creighton, Denare, and Pelican Narrows. The SPSA says priority will shift to the immediate protection of Denare Beach and Creighton communities Sunday. Resources are deployed for structure protection. Visibility and winds will affect air support.
The 30,000-hectare 25DB-WOLF fire, west of Denare Beach also continues to be uncontained. Jan Lake and the McIlveena Mine site are under evacuation alerts, and the SPSA said in its media availability Sunday afternoon that the copper mine has been fully evacuated. SPSA says in its situational update that the fire appears to have crossed Sturgeon-Weir River East of Corneille Lake. Highway 106 activity is confined to KM270 in the Leaf Rapids vicinity west of Maligne Lake. Crews will be working on values protection. Resources deployed are Type 1 Crew Members, Type 2 Crews, Helicopter Support, Air Tanker Support.
The Lower Fishing Lake fire (25LF-SHOE) as of 11 a.m. was more than 305,000 hectares in size, and is likely to have increased substantially in size overnight, according to the SPSA. It is uncontained and evacuations have been ordered for Lower Fishing Lake, Piprell Lake, East Trout Lake, Little Bear Lake and Whiteswan/ Whelan Bay.
Other communities within 20 kilometres are Caribou Creek, Choiceland, Garrick, Snowden and Smeaton. In addition to cabins and lodges in the area, at risk are Gemn Lakes Campground, Narrow Hills Provincial Park (now closed), Clarence-Steepbank Lakes Provincial Park, East Trout-Nipekamew Lakes Recreation Site (now closed) a logging camp and an SPSA fire base.
According to the SPSA situational update online Sunday, resources deployed to the Lower Fishing Lake fire are Type 1 Crew Members, Type 2 Crews, Heavy Equipment Support (including dozers), Helicopter Support, Air Tanker Support, Delta Wildfire Irrigation Values Protection Specialists, Gel Systems Canada, SPSA Emergency Response Team, Local Fire Departments, Britannia Fire Department.
The 25LA-PISEW fire west of La Ronge continues to be uncontained Sunday and covers and area of more than 61,000 hectares. Communities within 20 kilometres are Besnard Lake and Hall Lake, with the latter having been evacuated.
Resources deployed are: Type 1 Crew Members, Type 2 Crew Members, Helicopter Support, Air Tanker Support, Heavy Equipment Support. SPSA noted in their situation bulletin that visibility allowed for helicopter buckets Sunday morning.
The 25DB-PELICAN2 fire, northeast of Pelican Narrows, is also not contained as of Sunday. More than 9,000 hectares have been involved and it has grown significantly since that measurement was noted. There have been evacuations from Pelican Narrows and a construction camp. Resources deployed are Type 1 Crew Members, Type 2 Crews, Helicopter Support, Air Tanker Support, Warman Fire Department.
Plans for today were to continue to action the fire near Pelican Narrows and hotspot around town as spot fires start, use aircraft as weather permits, and to demobilize old value protection units that are no longer required and redeploy at new locations. Values at threat are a construction camp, Pelican Narrows, SaskPower Lines, the highway to Sandy Bay, SaskTel Lines, PPSTN Communication Tower.
The 25WY-DITCH02 fire, north of Weyakwin, is also still uncontained, with 9,700 hectares involved, according to the last SPSA situation update. But Sunday afternoon the SPSA said it has likely doubled in size. Resources deployed there are Type 1 crew, Type 2 Crews, Helicopter Support, Air Tanker Support, Heavy Equipment, Buckland Fire Department, Prince Albert Fire Department, Wakaw Fire Department, Martensville Fire Department, Warman Fire Department. Weyakwin and the Resort Subdivision of Ramsey Bay are under evacuation.
SPSA says Type 2 crews will work with dozers to wrap the southwest excursion into the highway. Another crew with dozers will continue to mop up operations at the man-up site. Crews will also patrol the town to extinguish anything threatening and conduct structural protection. Crews will work the east perimeter of the base to full extinguishment; water will be shuttled as needed between the base and town.
Another fire of note is the 25LA-JAYSMITH fire northeast of Missinipe, involving 38,000 hectares. While its status is "protecting values", its deployment includes Type 1 crew, Type 2 Crews, Helicopter Support, Wildcat Protection Services, Air Tanker Support, contracted float planes.Brabant Lake is under evacuation and power poles are down, causing power outages. Crews will continue working around Brabant and be on site in the event of spot fires with today’s wind event. Other crews will service value protection units by road and boat.
The SPSA confirmed Sunday that more than 80 cabins, houses, sheds and other assets, termed “values” have been burned so far this year.
