05-06-2025
Saskatchewan receives out-of-province help during extreme wildfire season
WATCH: It's all hands on deck as the Saskatchewan provincial fire crews fight to limit the damage of ongoing wildfires.
WATCH: It's all hands on deck as the Saskatchewan provincial fire crews fight to limit the damage of ongoing wildfires.
It's all hands-on-deck as crews try to limit the damage from Saskatchewan's extreme wildfires. Resources are being brought in from around the province and across the country to help with the fight.
The Warman fire department is one of many that have sent additional help to the fire crews up north, with crews currently working near Weyakwin and Denare Beach.
Chief Russ Austin with Warman Fire Rescue says they are able to help other communities while still taking care of their own.
'With conditions the way they are, we just can't, we can't move all our pieces off the chessboard. Right now, we keep about 25 firefighters in Warman, that are volunteers that can come and respond when needed.'
The Saskatchewan Fire Chiefs Association partnered with the Toronto-based Global Medic charity to bring in fire skids, designed to turn regular pick-up trucks into firetrucks.
The donated skids arrived this week from Edmonton and are being distributed out of Warman.
'They came in at 230, and by 5:00 they were already gone,' said Austin. 'By 7 p.m., at least four of those skids were fighting fire. It's amazing efficiency.'
While the skids can help fight smaller, less extreme fires, the high intensity of some of the wildfires means they can only be fought by highly trained crews.
'We've had fires where we've evacuated our entire firefighting staff at short notice,' said Steve Roberts from the Saskatchewan Public Safety Agency (SPSA). 'From Lower Fishing Lakes, we had to evacuate over 200 people. Those are fires that are not stable enough to use resources that are not familiar with active wildfires. So, it is one reason we currently are not using the military.'
The province has received additional crews and equipment from B.C., the Northwest Territories, P.E.I., Nova Scotia, Alberta, Arizona, Alaska, and Oregon.
The SPSA estimates that up to 600,000 hectares of land have burned so far this year.
