Areas of northern Saskatchewan are once again facing uncontained wildfires as recent hot weather causes multiple flare-ups over the Labour Day long weekend, according to the SPSA’s website.
Both the Muskeg and the Trail wildfires — two of the biggest in Saskatchewan — flared up on Saturday, prompting local officials to ask people to leave areas near the northern village of Île-à-la-Crosse, roughly 375 kilometres northwest of Saskatoon.
Acting mayor of Île-à-la-Crosse Vince Ahenakew said currently, Île-à-la-Crosse itself is safe, sheltered by both its peninsula location and old wildfire burns from previous years, but areas north of the northern village are in “rough shape.”
Local officials asked people in the Canoe River subdivision to leave their properties late Saturday evening.
Ahenakew said the SPSA could have done more proactive work on the fires ahead of the weekend’s flare-up.
“They kind of let them sit and fester. The wind comes along and then the heat and then it’s gone, then it’s too big,” he said by phone Sunday morning from the fire line near Canoe River, where fire breached highway 155 late Saturday night and helicopters were bucketing water.
Sections of Highway 155 between Buffalo Narrows and the Beauval area were closed due to the fire, but have since re-opened, according to the province’s Highway hotline, but there is “low visibility due to wildfires and smoke.”
Ahenakew said if a helicopter or firefighting crew had been brought in right away when there was a small fire, it would have been extinguished.
“They need to be a little bit more responsive — faster. It seems to be that there’s too much bureaucracy in there,” Ahenakew said, adding quite a few people are upset with how things have been managed.
“They should have had crews in there to shut these fires off, but they didn’t send anybody. So now they’re flaring up again after a week of heat,” Ahenakew said.
SPSA was asked for comment, but a response wasn’t received before publication time.
On Saturday afternoon, campers in South Bay War Veterans Park were asked to leave by 8 p.m., because of weather conditions and concerns about unfavourable winds.
Highway 165, east of the northern village of Beauval near the intersection with Highway 914, closed Saturday evening due to fire crossing the road and is currently barricaded as of Sunday afternoon.
As of late Sunday morning, the Muskeg fire and the Trail fire were not considered contained, according to the SPSA’s website.
Both communities that make up English River First Nation are keeping an eye on the fires and are on standby, according to Candyce Paul, the emergency management coordinator for the community.
“It was pretty hairy [Saturday] with fires flaring everywhere,” Paul said.
“The Muskeg fire is still alive and well, apparently, as is the Trail fire,” She said.
Both fires were tampered by rain over the last week, Paul said, and “things were looking better and they were looking closer to being contained, but it got hot and dry again.”
English River First Nation is composed of two communities, 88 kilometeres apart: English River First Nation Patuanak to the north and English River First Nation La Plonge in the south.
Paul said the fire is about 5 kilometres from the southern part of the community and helicopters are currently working in the area.
She said the fire went down over Saturday night, “it’s been pretty calm since.”
Nobody in the community is looking forward to the possibility of another evacuation after over 50 days spent outside the community this summer, she said.
“Everybody is PTSDed. Every time they see smoke, it raises their anxiety levels,” Paul said.
Every community up north has been evacuated several times these last few years, she said.
“We’re just tired of this situation,” she said.
