With the current forest fires of California, who have killed at least 28 people and destroyed thousands of homes, and the devastating fire last year in Jasper, Alta., People who live in the largest cities of Saskatchewan can wonder how vulnerable They are forest fires.
Steve Roberts, vice president of the Public Security Agency of Saskatchewan, says that all municipalities have their own risks, which are usually more serious the more a town or city is.
The landscape in the southernmost part of the province, which surrounds Regina and Saskatoon, is mainly farms and grasslands, while Prince Albert, further north, is located in the forestry.
Roberts said there have been fires near Prince Albert, a city with a population of around 38,000 inhabitants, in the last 10 to 20 years. In 2021, the city declared the state of emergency due to nearby forest fires and ordered the evacuation of residents of 34 homes just north of the city.
“Prince Albert is a wooded community, so they need to put an extra effort in their prevention and planning for this type of risk, similar to [how] any city that has a river or [is] Near an ocean has to plan floods, “Roberts said.
In 2023, the province lived one of the most serious forest fire seasons, with 494 fires that burned around 1.9 million hectares of land and forced 2,703 people to leave their homes, said the public security agency in October of that year.
Grasshogs are a risk in Regina, Saskatoon
Although they are further south and surrounded by different landscapes, Regina and Saskatoon are not immune to forest fires, according to John Pomeroy, distinguished professor at the Hydrology Center at the University of Saskatchewan.
He observed the Fire of Corman Park last August, which destroyed properties worth $ 3 million and covered 300 hectares of land on the outskirts of Saskatoon.
“In the right conditions, yes, this can also happen to us and, unfortunately, the appropriate conditions are taking place,” he said.
For the middle and end of this century, the Saskatchewan region is expected to experience average temperatures of six to seven degrees above the normal values of the nineteenth century, Pomeroy said.
That, along with a greater drought due to an expected fall in rainfall, will create a higher risk of forest fires in urban and suburban areas, he said.
Colin Laroque, Head of the Department of Soil Sciences of the U of S, says that although Saskatoon and Regina are susceptible to grass fires, they are better protected than the communities of the north because there are more spaces to stop fires and because the Pasto fires are easier to control. fight that forest fires due to accessibility.
Laroque pointed out that unusual conditions have influenced the latest fires in California.
“I think California is special because … it really has not had any measurable rain since last April 2024,” and has also seen warm and dry winds, Laroque said.
“Then, when you have that long period of drought, suddenly everything dries completely and anything could explode.”
While it is too early to know with certainty, Laroque believes that the conditions could be adequate for another season of dry forest fires in Saskatchewan. He also points out that even when fires do not represent an immediate threat of damage to cities, smoke can continue to be a problem.
Are cities prepared?
The risk that forest fires spread to homes in Regina is considered low, says the Deputy Chief of Protection and Fire Services of Regina, Gord Hewitt. The department was called by 31 forest fires and grass in 2024. These fires are usually contained rapidly, he said.
The best mitigation strategy is public education and the prohibition of fires during the dry season, Hewitt added.
“Many of the fires that we see will come from things like trains sparks … [or] Discarded materials for smoking, so we try to make sure to educate the public properly to reduce the risk, “he said.
The deputy chief of the Saskatoon Fire Department, Rob Hogan, said that his department usually sees fires that involve the burning of crops, in areas with a lot of independent weed.
Unlike California, there are many natural firewalls around Saskatoon, Hogan said.
The city has also prepared in recent years buying trucks of four by four that can transport hundreds of liters of water at the same time, and the department also has two 3,000 gallons trucks (approximately 11,000 liters).
Farmers also usually help using their equipment to make more firewall, Hogan said.
“I am not saying that we cannot have a very serious fire; we could, but not similar to what California is seeing,” he said.
The city of Prince Albert did not respond to a request for comments on his emergency plans before publication.
According to provincial legislation, each city must have such a plan. Roberts, from the Public Security Agency of Saskatchewan, said that in a fairly serious situation, he is ready to help the municipalities.
“If that incident level is overwhelming local resources, that is one of the main mandates of the Public Security Agency,” he said.
“We could send tank trucks to grass fires in the south if they were large enough and need that intervention.”
Pomeroy of the U of S also pointed out that in case of a fire serious enough, Saskatoon has the South Saskatchewan and Regina river has the Wascana lake to extract water.
