No relief in sight from wildfires as 20 Sask. communities under evacuation orders

CBC

2 days ago

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Wildfires in Saskatchewan are expected to continue to grow aggressively during the next few days, fuelled by high temperatures, winds and dry conditions. And there's no sign of relief in sight, according to the latest update from the Saskatchewan Public Safety Agency.
"This will drastically impact our ability to contain some of these fires and will actually cause some of these fires to grow in size over the next period of time," Steve Roberts, SPSA vice-president of operations, said at a news conference Sunday.
As of Sunday afternoon, 15 fires were burning in the province, down from 17 because two fires have merged and some small fires have been contained, the SPSA said.
Roberts said 20 communities are under an evacuation order as of 1 p.m. CST Sunday. The latest evacuation orders have been in Sturgeon Landing and Timber Bay.
Thousands of people have already been displaced from their homes in communities including Hall Lake, Pelican Narrows, Creighton, Denare Beach and Weyakwin.
Fires continue to impact highways, restricting access to some communities. Roberts said closures are happening constantly, and people should check the Highway Hotline for the latest updates.
He said as of Sunday, 80 values, including houses and cabins, have been lost to the wildfires.
At a news conference in Saskatoon on Sunday, Premier Scott Moe said while provinces in Canada share resources in situations like these wildfires, a national investment in shared fire fighting forces should be considered.
"Should we have a national investment into, for argument's sake, five, 10 or 20 air tankers that could then go into that process to be shared wherever they might be needed in whatever particular year?" Moe said.
"Should we nationally as Canadians add to that resource pool so that all provinces and territories — and even in fairness into the U.S. in some years in California, we've seen some challenging years — be able to draw from that as a global partner?"
WATCH | Sask. premier says resources are stretched as wildfires rage:
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At a news conference on Saturday, Saskatchewan Premier Scott Moe said the province is 'using all the resources we can' as a spate of wildfires have forced thousands of people to flee their homes. 'We cannot manage and handle a single other fire,' he said.
Latest evacuations
Moe said on Sunday morning that Sturgeon Landing has been evacuated. The community is part of Peter Ballantyne Cree Nation, in the province's northeast.
Also on Sunday, the Northern Hamlet of Timber Bay issued an alert that residents must begin evacuating immediately.
A nearby wildfire is fast-moving and threatening the community, the alert said. The community is on the east shore of Montreal Lake, north of Prince Albert.
The alert advised people to self-evacuate using highways 969 and 2, and to go to the Meridian Inn and Suites in Regina. The Saskatchewan Public Safety Agency "will be there to welcome you," it said.
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Carl Hennie, a volunteer firefighter in Timber Bay, said things changed very quickly.
"Fast, it happened pretty fast. The fire's way east of us, but the winds shifted," Hennie said in an interview Sunday.
He also said that Timber Bay's only fire truck is broken.
"It hasn't worked for a few years now because there's no funding to fix it.… It is concerning. We're just lucky we haven't had a house where people and kids [are] in there, lucky so far," he said.
Hennie said the pumps froze up a while ago and the whole truck broke down — and being a small community, there is only enough money for operational costs.
Pre-evacuation for Molanosa
Also on Sunday, Montreal Lake Cree Nation declared a pre-evacuation notice for people in Molanosa, a small, isolated community about 150 kilometres north of Prince Albert.
The First Nation said the alert is due to high winds from the west that were expected to cause heavy smoke and possibly push a wildfire in the region closer to the community. The Ditch02 fire is burning west of Molanosa.
Any community member who chooses to leave at this point is urged to go to the Montreal Lake Child and Family Services building, the designated meeting point and command centre. The band said evacuees have to go there to receive services.
Cabin burned down
Geoffrey Bird from Montreal Lake Cree Nation was part of the volunteer firefighting team that stayed back in the community in 2015 when a wildfire forced thousands to flee for a long time.
It's déjà vu for him as he waits for orders from the authorities. "My cabins burned down on East Road," he said.
"That's towards Candle Lake.…That's where my mom had built a cabin, and I inherited that cabin. I haven't gone to see it yet," he said.
Bird said that no one is allowed to go to that area right now as it is too dangerous.
'It just went instantly dark'
Lisa Powder, from Weyakwin, evacuated to Montreal Lake Cree Nation four days ago. She said that when she and her family left, the fire was extremely close to the community.
"It was really close, and we had to get in buses and get over here. You could hardly see anything. It just went instantly dark, from sunshine to darkness," Powder said.
"I worry about the homes, the structures, the cabins, the animals and the firefighters … and our pets. Our pets are all there," she said.
"It's scary. We don't know when we wake up in the morning, if there's anything left but [we have] confidence in the boys back home and they'll save everything."
SaskTel outages
SaskTel internet, wireless and landline services are unavailable in Deschambault Lake and Pelican Narrows in the province's northeast, according to a statement Sunday.
"Additionally, SaskTel anticipates these services will also become unavailable in Jan Lake sometime this afternoon," the statement said.
SaskTel said that services will remain unavailable until commercial power is restored or until it is safe for SaskTel crews to go into impacted areas.