Lisa Powder and her great -grandchildren were among Weyakwin’s first residents to return home after fleeing a forest fire that burned dangerously near the community of northern Saskatchewan.
“It’s sad to go home to see him like this,” Powder said as he walked to a neighbor’s house on Thursday afternoon.
“A little fear with all the smoke and knowing that the fires are still close. So we keep a couple of full bags just in case.”
On Thursday an evacuation order for Weyakwin, a village located about 250 kilometers northeast of Saskatoon, allowing residents to return for the first time in a week. The thick smoke remains, as is the threat of specific fires.
Powder is grateful for firefighters and other crews that prevented the fire from damaging a single building in the village.
However, there are small losses, such as a favorite walking path. Other losses will grow again.
“We lost a good berry patch,” Powder said. “That was the best cranberry patch of the city.”
A handful of fire teams patrolled Weyakwin on Thursday, checking sprinklers and observing specific fires.
Jordan Lavalle and his crew were glad to see people return. They have been fighting near Fire Fire since May.
It was then that Lavalle, who grew up in Weyakwin and is a certified emergency firefighter, received a surprise visit while working in his usual work in the La Ronge cooperative.
“My crew appeared there and needed a crew leader, so I ended up calling and told my boss that I wanted to fight fires and save the city,” Lavalle said.
That is exactly what Lavalle crews and dozens of other firefighters and volunteers did.
Kalan Natonagan lives in Weyakwin and is part of Lavalle’s crew. On Thursday, he was going to extinguish a fire on the mountain just at the end of his house’s street.
“It feels good to fight for my own community,” Natonagan said.
The fire burned much of the forest in the area. Carbonized trees and the brush line 2 highway.
“There is very little around,” Lavalle said. “You really can’t see any wild life or anything.”
Working on the first line of unprecedented forest fire season is a bit exciting, he said.
“You couldn’t even walk 50 feet and there was another guy working to turn off the fires,” Lavalle said.
Joslynn Thederf and his 11 -year -old daughter, Hayleight, call his silver SUV, parked in a parking lot by Prince Albert, his home for the moment. They joined the convoy that left the Ronge earlier this week when forest fires advanced in the community of northern Saskatchewan.
The dust stayed in Montreal Lake Cree Nation with other evacuated Weyakwin, Timber Bay and Molelanosa. They were treated well, but they are happy to be at home, even if there is a disaster.
“We arrived home and there were ashes everywhere and the house smells like smoke, so I got the carpet setter and put everything,” Powder said.
She knows that she is one of the fortunate evacuated. Thousands of displaced residents are still waiting to listen to their homes.
Until Thursday afternoon, there were 27 forest fires in Saskatchewan, six of them not contained, according to the Public Security Agency of Saskatchewan.
“For the evacuees, be patient,” Powder said. “Have faith that your houses will remain there.
“We are praying for everyone to be sure.”
Updated information about active fires, smoke and related topics is available in these sources:
