Weary crews battling Saskatchewan blazes
Chris Thimpsen and the others protecting this northern reserve from raging forest fires are getting tired.
They’re working as hard as they can in the heat and smoke and soot, but there’s only so much they can do.
“Fires are natural. Nature needs to shut them down. We need a four-day rain,” Thimpsen said as he drove around the perimeter of this community 200 kilometres north of Prince Albert, Sask.
The reserve, part of the Lac la Ronge Indian Band (LLRIB), is normally filled with children playing on the grounds of Sally Ross School or near the adjacent, pristine lake. Workers joke that the community is now a “ghost town,” save for the firefighters coming in and out of the school to get more food or water.
“It’s so dry everywhere, and the winds keep changing,” Thimpsen said.
As in La Ronge, the fires are lapping at Hall Lake from multiple directions, reaching as close as two kilometres from the residential areas.
Hall Lake residents, as well as more than 10,000 people across Saskatchewan’s north, have been evacuated with no fixed date set for their return.
Provincial officials said Sunday they have begun to plan for the return of others after Grandmother’s Bay residents were allowed to return on the weekend.
However, the evacuation order remains in effect for the general populations of Hall Lake, the La Ronge area and other communities.
“That’s a good step forward,” said Duane McKay, Saskatchewan’s commissioner of emergency management.
A convoy escorted dozens of vehicles through the La Ronge fire zone farther north to their homes. Their communities were never under an evacuation order but they’d been stranded when the highway access was closed.
As of Sunday, fire conditions remained severe but relatively stable, with only two new fires reported. Officials are hopeful the forecast rain will bring some relief to the La Ronge area, but it’s unclear whether it will be enough to make a difference. There is also concern that a storm could bring high winds and lightning, making the situation even worse.
Residents of Hall Lake have had a particularly tumultuous summer. This is the fourth time they’ve been evacuated, and have spent weeks in shelters set up around the province or in Alberta, as well as with friends or family.
“They get to come home and then they think it’s over, but then they get an order and have to leave again. It’s tough,” said McIvor Eninew, the Hall Lake-area councillor for LLRIB.
Thimpsen has sent his wife and children to the shelter in Saskatoon and talks to her every night. He and others have chosen to stay, often working from 6 a.m. until after darkness falls. Some fight fires. Others patrol the homes to make sure there are no break-ins.
“It’s my community. I wanted to stay and help,” Thimpsen said.
“This is beautiful country when it’s not burning.”
Adam Charles came back recently from vacation at his Creighton-area cabin to relieve staff at the Hall Lake gas bar and to supply crews. He said changing winds may mean the cabin will be lost to fire in the coming days.