Prime Minister Scott MOE says that Saskatchewan’s ability to fight a forest fire plague throughout the province is reaching the point of rupture.
The Prime Minister joined the Saskatchewan Public Security Agency officials at a press conference at Prince Albert on Saturday to update the current situation of forest fires.
The province continues to experience one of its worst beginnings until the registered forest fire season. More than 500,000 hectares have burned forest fires throughout the province so far this year.
“The resources are stretched due to the severity of the situation we face and the intensity and proximity of fires,” Moe told reporters. “I just can’t have another fire.”
People must be very careful when accessing areas close to forest fires, since these are incredibly stressful and challenging times for those in northern Saskatchewan.
Sixteen active forest fires in the province have led at least 17 evacuations, forcing thousands of people to flee their homes.
Evacuated feeling the pressure
Sandy Oosterlaken of the town of Denare Beach, where there is an evacuation order, said he was about 30 minutes to get out of his home. But when they told her to leave, her husband was caught on the other side without access to the essential.
“My husband was caught on the other side of the barricade without pills, without food, with nothing. They would not let me come to evacuate,” he said.
Oosterlaken managed to reach him, but now the couple is in Limbo trying to find out where they are going to go. They have no idea where to spend the night and for how long.
“We are trying to register at the Saskatchewan Red Cross; I tried numerous times,” he said. She has not been able to register in any of the evacuation organizers so far.
“The worst happens, we are sleeping in the car. We will continue traveling from city to city to city until we hope something,” said Oosterlaken, and added that they first go to Saskatoon.
Emergency state declared in Sturgeon Landing
The Peter Ballantyne Nation has declared an emergency state for the Sturgeon Landing community due to forest fires. It is emitting a mandatory evacuation order due to a strong smoke from a forest fire in Manitoba and the growing threat to the access of the road inside and outside the area.
The first nation says that all community members must immediately evacuate and that the evacuees must meet at the Wanless store, which will serve as the staging area.
From there, he says, a convoy will travel to the PAS, the man, with the support of the emergency personnel to guarantee a safe evacuation. If someone is evacuating a private vehicle, they are urged to follow the convoy and not travel alone.
The smoke of forest fires is also affecting other communities in the province, with Air quality warnings Instead for areas such as Saskatoon, Regina, Prince Albert and Estevan.
The largest fire in the province, the shoe fire, has burned 305,000 hectares, which is approximately 13 times the size of Saskatoon. The smoke of that fire has threatened communities, including Candle Lake’s tourist village.
At a press conference on Saturday, Saskatchewan Prime Minister Scott Moe said the province is “using all the resources we can” as a series of forest fires, have forced thousands of people to flee their homes. “We cannot handle and handle a single other fire,” he said.
The community experienced a thick smoke in recent days, but according to the last update, the fire “moves more slowly to Candle Lake.”
“However, wind and weather conditions can change rapidly, and our evacuation prior to alert and voluntary evacuation notices remain in force,” according to the update at 10 am on Friday.
The Saskatchewan Public Security Agency (SPSA) said that resources are being deployed to mitigate the fire, including type 1 and type 2 firefighters, helicopters, local firefighters departments and heavy equipment. Evacuated communities due to the shoe fire include Lower Fishing Lake, Piprell Lake, East Trout Lake, Little Bear Lake. WHITESWAN/WHELAN BAY.
Prince Albert National Park limits access
Parks Canada has issued a closure for areas within the Prince Albert National Park due to forest fires.
It is restricting all the areas of journey in the National Park, Kingsmere Road west Narrows Peninsula Trail; Elk Trail and the ValleyView trail network, excluding the easy and moderate paths of Valleyview; The whole lake create, including create Campground Kitchen and the area of daytime use, excluding the hung heart lakes.
Visitors are asked to respect closures to reduce the risk of lighting new fires.
Power remains northeast of Sask. communities
Saskpower said in a update that forest fire conditions are interrupting repair work for interruption in some communities in the north. The teams have been forced to stop working in Deschambult Lake, Denare Beach, Pelican Narrows, Jan Lake, Creighton and its surroundings.
Until Friday morning, the teams had not been able to resume work in those regions safely.
In the Ronge, Southend, Babant Lake and McLennan Lake, similar challenges are reported. Saskpower said Friday that the teams are on their way to continue repairs to address the interruption, but there is currently no estimated restoration time due to the continuous threat of forest fires.
METIS Nation – Saskatchewan declares the state of emergency
On Friday, La Nación Metis (Saskatchewan (MN – S) also declared an emergency state, joining the provincial government as more citizens are forced to flee their homes with little or no notification.
“These forest fires are spreading so unpredictable, and citizens are being evacuated with little or no warning and without destiny in their place. They are leaving their homes and life behind with little more than uncertainty ahead,” said the president of MN, Glen McCallum, in a statement.
The MN-S government said that it has mounted response equipment to help in firefighters, is providing culturally founded services when possible, and is coordinating with provincial and federal partners to ensure that Citizens of Methis have access to support.
Federal response to forest fires
Saskatchewan is under a provincial emergency state due to forest fires. That means that the province can access more resources and request the support of the different levels of the government.
Eleanor Olszewski, the Federal Minister of Emergency Management, said in an interview with CBC News Network on Friday that Manitoba has requested a “request for assistance” from the federal government, but Saskatchewan has not yet made a similar request.
She said the Royal Canadian Air Force is helping those remote communities in Manitoba to evacuate Winnipeg.
“I talked to my counterpart, my provincial counterpart Tim Mcleod, this afternoon and he advised me that the situation in Saskatchewan is manageable today,” he said.
“In the event that federal resources are required, we are absolutely prepared to step forward and help,” said Olszewski.
The Prime Minister said that the province requests different resources from different locations, depending on the need. “This is the resource you really need … the federal government traditionally has no water bombing support. If they did, we would be requesting,” he said.
MOE said the final decision to make a call for a “request for assistance” is in the hands of the president of SPSA, Marlo Pritchard, and Vice President of Steve Roberts operations.
“It is definitely part of that contingency planning, but it is one of the last steps,” Pritchard told reporters.
Creighton fire
The Cub Fire north of Creighton is 25,000 hectares from Saturday afternoon. The authorities said it is very close to the community and that there was a significant “action” last night due to the southern winds.
“The priority is to continue protecting the communities of Creighton and Denare Beach,” said Pritchard.
He said that numerous fire departments, including volunteer firefighters, have been sent to those communities to help protect them.
Updated information about active fires, smoke and related topics is available in these sources:
