A wildfire entered the northern Saskatchewan community of Beauval Thursday night.
Shortly after 4 p.m., a fire approached the village from the west and “flanked us,” said Beauval Mayor Rick Laliberte.
“And there’s a second front to the north that’s also coming in on the lagoon side, which is the industrial side of our community.”The Beauval Emergency Operations Committee (EOC) reported that the canteen building at the recreation grounds was destroyed in a Facebook post at 10 p.m.
Laliberte confirmed on 7:30 a.m on Friday that no houses have been burned down.
A mandatory evacuation order was issued last week for Beauval in response to nearby wildfires, but support staff and an emergency management team had remained behind. Laliberte said he and his wife were the last evacuees to leave the village, which is roughly 350 kilometres north of Saskatoon.
There are currently Emergency Operations Centre members in Beauval who are still working to protect buildings and other infrastructure from the fire, he said.
“It’s unbelievable. You pray — you’ve prayed that it wouldn’t happen, but it’s there and it’s a reality,” said Laliberte.
Laliberte said he was going to go back, but was confronted with a wall of fire near the garbage dump in the community that was “100 feet tall” blocking entry.
An escape route to the other side of the village remains available via Highway 165 across the bridges to La Plonge reserve, he said.
Just over 80 kilometres north of Beauval, the hamlet of Patuanak has declared a state of emergency and is airlifting some residents out a week after wildfire blocked the only road into the community, leaving around 700 people stranded.
The community is usually only accessible by road via Highway 918.
“Without assurance that the road could be opened and power lines still being threatened we declared a state of emergency in Patuanak,” officials with the English River First Nation, which has its administration in Patuanak, said in a Facebook post Wednesday.
Priority 1 and 2 people — including elders, children and those with medical conditions — are being taken to safety by aircraft, said Cheyenna Hunt, English River’s director of lands and consultation, in an email to CBC on Thursday.
Those who are able to will remain in the community.
“The combination of fire and smoke has created this state,” Hunt said, adding that winds have been “extremely volatile.”
Olivia McIntyre, an evacuee from Patuanak, said she was called “minutes” before she and her 24-year-old son would be airlifted out of the community.
“[They said], ‘It’s mandatory … pack your stuff, pack one bag. This is what time you need to be picked up. This is where you’re going to be dropped off,'” said McIntyre.
The situation was stressful for her son, who has cerebral palsy, she said.
“He was starting to have really high anxiety because the smoke was just too much for him,” McIntyre said.
Her oldest son, who serves for the Canadian Rangers, stayed behind.
“Leaving him behind and hugging him … it’s hard for me,” McIntyre said.
The past 24 hours have been nothing short of chaotic and “very stressful,” McIntyre said.
After having no power for 19 hours, she and her son were sent to be picked up by aircraft Thursday morning to begin their journey to Buffalo Narrows, about 50 kilometres away, and then on to Lloydminster, on the Saskatchewan-Alberta border, by bus.
McIntyre was on the first bus out of Buffalo Narrows. She was joined by 56 other Patuanak residents —many of them young pregnant women or people with small children.
The second bus out of Buffalo Narrows had to turn around due to an approaching fire, said McIntyre.
She said she doesn’t know where she will be going once she reaches Lloydminster, or how long she will have to stay there.
“The community needs to come together and work together,” McIntyre said, adding communication from leadership is very important right now.
“We’re being displaced … not knowing if we’re going to come back to a home.”
The fire near Patuanak, named the Muskeg fire, has grown to nearly 34,000 hectares and is about 40 kilometres away from the hamlet, Saskatchewan Public Safety Agency executive director of land operations Bryan Chartrand said earlier Thursday.
The Smith Fire is also about 29 kilometres away, Chartrand said.
Southerly winds that have been pushing the fire toward Patuanak are expected to switch direction Monday, heading north, he said.
“These fires will not be getting any closer,” said Chartrand.
Despite that, the public safety agency said it had been in discussions with English River First Nation and Patuanak prior to the decision to evacuate.
“Not only on who should evacuate, what the risks are, but they also make decisions on how they want to carry that out,” said Steve Roberts, the safety agency’s vice-president of operations.
In addition to Beauval, La Plonge reserve, the resort subdivision of Lac La Plonge and Kinoosao are under evacuation orders due to the Muskeg fire.
The safety agency said 930 people remain evacuated in the province — down from 15,000 in June.
The agency issued a fire ban Thursday for areas north of the provincial forest boundary, up to the Churchill River, due to “the high fire activity and extreme fire risk.”
As of Thursday evening, 56 fires remain active in Saskatchewan, with only five listed as contained.
The agency lists 14 as not contained, 20 as under ongoing assessment and 17 as “protecting values,” meaning the fire is active and the focus is on protecting things like cabins and infrastructure.
Saskatchewan has had 362 wildfires to date this year, well above the five-year average of 222 for this time.
Up-to-date info on active fires, smoke and related topics is available at these sources:
