FIRES DISPLACE THOUSANDS
Sask. sending crews, gear to B.C.
As the province sends crews and resources to the large wildfire currently burning in British Columbia, Saskatchewan’s own risk of wildfire remains quite low — even in the midst of a heat wave.
Southern areas of the province are currently rated as “extreme” under the provincial fire weather index thanks to hot conditions drying out vegetation within the grasslands. But the risk hasn’t increased to the point of implementing a provincial fire ban.
“Over the last few weeks or days, we have experienced some extreme weather here as well,” said emergency management and fire safety commissioner Duane McKay. “That has raised the threat of fire in the rural areas in the southern parts of the province. However, we haven’t seen significant growth in the number of calls over what we would consider normal this time of year.”
Although McKay said they aren’t taking any risks, having already taken steps to prepare in case anything ignites through the deployment of fire caches throughout southern areas of the province. These caches consisting of all terrain vehicles, radio equipment, protective gear, pumps, hoses and other tools, have been made available to local fire crews to support any major firefighting effort — and are especially important if the blaze continues for a long time or crosses jurisdictional boundaries, McKay said.
The number of fires so far this year has been lower than average in both the southern and northern areas of the province with only 110 since the beginning of 2017 – well below the five-year average of 308.
“That isn’t to say that can’t change over the next number of weeks if this weather continues and we don’t see moisture,” McKay concluded.
Most of northern Saskatchewan is seeing a low to moderate risk of fire. Steve Roberts, executive director of Saskatchewan’s wildfire management program, said the lower risk is thanks to wet conditions in both the fall and the spring.
“What it means is we’ve had very few lightning-caused fires, most of the fires to date have been mancaused . ... We haven’t had that many fires, none of them extremely large and we have been able to contain all of them.”
Premier Brad Wall said the government could call back the resources from B.C. if a blaze begins back home.
“Whatever we send to British Columbia we need to (know) if worstcase-scenario can we get it back in time,” said Wall.
Wall pointed out that during the 2015 wildfire that saw the evacuation of La Ronge, that the province received help from other provinces, including British Columbia, and the United States.