Wildfire forces emergency evacuation of Burstall

An emergency evacuation of the town of Burstall and the southern half of the RM of Deerfolks in southwest Saskatchewan was ordered Tuesday due to a wildfire in the area.

According to Environment Canada, a wildfire was burning “that has serious potential to cause emergency situations for the public.”

When the emergency order was issued Tuesday afternoon, the wildfire was burning south of Burstall and moving northeast along Range Road 11 from Hilda, Alta.

All residents of the areas under the evacuation order were being told to travel north toward Leader on Highway 21, although by Tuesday night the highway was also closed due to the fire threat.

Aileen Ehnisz was sitting in the Leader Community Centre on Tuesday afternoon after being evacuated from Mendham, located 30 kilometres northeast of Burstall.

“We got ourselves, we got our pets and we’re just wondering about our husbands who are all back there fighting fire,” she said.

The evacuation centre in Leader had just a few people in it by early evening but was expecting more to arrive after the town put out a donation call for supplies from area residents.

Though those who evacuated to Leader — along with its residents — won’t be staying in town long after a full evacuation order was issued late Tuesday afternoon due to the spreading wildfire.

The town has been placed under a state of emergency with residents and previous evacuees advised to head for Kindersley.

Ehnisz said no one who had been evacuated knew quite what to think with the shock just setting in. She has just been told to leave her home around 4 p.m.

“We’re all very concerned for the farms and for everyone — there’s a lot of livestock out there,” she said.

She said she couldn’t see anything as she left her home because the smoke was so thick. She immediately thought back to a fire in the area about a month ago that killed around 100 head of cattle.

“I’m just kind of shocked,” she said. “Anything other than our lives I guess can go, but you just don’t know what to think.”

Someone who answered the phone at the Burstall Motel said the town was filled with smoke but the flames had not yet reached the village.

Kevin Moen, who works with Service Master out of Swift Current, was working in the basement of a house when the homeowner came downstairs and told him to get going because the town was being evacuated.

“Tons of smokes, heavy winds ... I don’t even know how fast it was going,” Moen said from Leader, where the RCMP was blocking drivers from heading south toward the fire.

Moen said he saw a number of trucks, tractors and discers heading out to help fight the fire. He couldn’t see flames because of the heavy smoke and was unsure how close to town the fire was.

As of Tuesday evening, 500 residents were evacuated from Burstall and 820 more have been evacuated from Leader — including 27 health patients who have been transferred to Swift Current by the Cypress Health Region.

Travel north of the village of Richmound was not recommended because the community was potentially in danger should the wind shift. Burstall is located approximately 200 kilometres northwest of Swift Current, near the AlbertaSaskatchewan border.