'We are beyond devastated': Fire destroys dozens of cabins and homes at East Trout Lake, Sask.

CBC

28-05-2025

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For days Myra Froc has been scouring social media hoping for word that her beloved family cabin at East Trout lake had escaped the ravages of the Shoe wildfire.
Froc got news on Wednesday afternoon. Her cabin was destroyed, burned to the ground along with dozens of others in the community.
"We are beyond devastated," Froc said in an emailed statement to CBC.
Froc received confirmation from the East Trout Lake Cabin Owners' Association that her cabin was destroyed.
Aerial pictures released Wednesday by the Saskatchewan Public Safety Agency (SPSA) show Froc's beloved cabin and community burned to ash.
"There was significant damage to both resorts. The fire was very intense in the town site and there is nothing left of our cabins," Froc said about the clusters of cabins at East Trout Lake.
For nearly 60 years, Froc's family has spent summers in the clapboard cabin her father built on the shores of East Trout Lake in 1967. Three generations have gathered each summer at the cabin deep in the File Hills, about 150 kilometres north of Prince Albert, surrounded by black spruce and tamarack pine trees.
"We're talking about potentially a whole townsite of 50 to 60 cabins, many of them affected. We just don't know how many and how many have been burned to the ground," Myra said from her home in Lumsden, prior to receiving confirmation that dozens of cabins in her community were destroyed.
"This cabin is part of our heritage. It's been in our family for so many years."
Froc and other community members had feared the worst.
Security camera footage was circulating showing the fire moving toward cabins before the power went out and the feed went down at 3 p.m CST Tuesday.
The footage released by the SPSA on Wednesday shows the charred remains of dozens of cabins along the shore of East Trout Lake.
It's led the community to expect the worst.
"It's like a death in the family to us. It's something that has just sort of vanished and it will take 50 or 60 years to grow forest again. It's gone in our lifetimes anyway. We won't see it again."
East Trout Lake remains under an evacuation order. Froc said even if someone tried to drive in to survey the damage, the wooden bridge providing access to the lake and cabins was destroyed by fire.
The SPSA said progress has been made in fighting the Shoe fire, but that "East Trout Lake has received substantial loss."
East Trout Lake is one of several areas evacuated due to the out-of-control wildfire that's been moving through the province's northern forest, decimating buildings and trees as it grows.
At last count, the Shoe fire covered 216,000 hectares.
Outfitting business destroyed
Darren Sochaski fears he has "lost everything" after wildfire burned through his outfitting business near Smeaton, Sask., about 70 kilometres northeast of Prince Albert.
"You hear people saying they watched their dreams burn, and I literally did that. It was devastating," he told Ian Hanomansing on CBC News Network. "The force of the fire and how it moved so fast, I don't even have words for it."
Sochaski tried to travel up to one of the camps to see if he could get stuff out before the fire got there, but he was too late.
He said the "force of the fire" that he witnessed makes him believe there is nothing left.
Sochaski questioned whether there are enough resources to fight fires, as more of them have started burning this week.
"We don't have the resources in Saskatchewan to fight these fires all at once," he said.
He's not the only one questioning the provincial response. Froc said her community feels forgotten.
In a media briefing on Tuesday, Steve Roberts, vice-president of operations for the SPSA, said the province has deployed "all our resources."
"Our provincial resources are indeed stretched and it is one of the reasons we have gone to our Canadian partners and our other mutual aid partners to get more resources," he said.
Saskatchewan has made requests for crews, equipment and more aircraft. There is already a water bomber from Alaska and two more from Quebec working in the province
Little Bear Lake still fighting to save buildings
The fire is also closing in on Little Bear Lake, a resort community off the Hanson Lake Road about 165 kilometres north east of Prince Albert.
Like East Trout Lake, it's under an evacuation order, but a handful of locals have stayed behind to work around the clock to keep sprinkler systems running, soaking all of the buildings and creating humidity to try and stave off the fire.
"Last night we could see a massive fire taking out all of the forest that's all the way across the lake. Where there used to be forest … now it's just char," said Troy Scowen, owner of Little Bear Lake Resort.
Scowen, one of the residents that stayed behind to help protect the buildings, said the fire has destroyed the community's garbage dump, which is about half a kilometre away from the resort at Little Bear.
"We're kind of surrounded, but not to the north, the north is still pretty good," Scowen said.
The SPSA said it plans to protect Moose Lodge at Little Bear Lake and noted the fire is only one kilometre from the west shore of the lake.
Scowen said the fire is an extreme threat to the Little Bear community, but added the people who have stayed behind to protect buildings will leave if it becomes unsafe.