Crews fight to contain large wildfire in Prince Albert park

Prince Albert National Park continues to burn, after what began as a controlled fire quickly turned into a wildfire that only continues to grow.

Preparation for a controlled burn, for ecological reasons, began on May 4. According to David Britton, superintendent for Prince Albert National Park, the goal of the fire was to help preserve some of the rare grasslands in the southern area of the park.

Control lines were being constructed to contain the fire on May 6, when the winds were higher than forecast, and the flames began to spread outside of the control lines.

“We never actually ignited the full prescribed fire unit, it was really during that preparatory phase that we had that spotting occur,” he said.

Now, the fire, known as the Rabbit Creek wildfire, is more than 31,000 hectares in size. All available resources are working to contain it, including 14 helicopters, two air tankers, and 187 firefighters from across Canada.

“We’re currently managing this as a wildfire; this is a full suppression wildfire. Parks Canada is directing all the necessary resources required to try and bring this wildfire under control as quickly as possible,” said Parks Canada incident commander Jed Cochrane.

As of Thursday afternoon, the fire was still within the boundaries of Prince Albert National Park.

“It’s contained into the middle of the park itself, so we’re working on strategies and tactics to determine how to contain the rest of this fire,” he said.

Should the fire spread towards surrounding communities, Parks Canada, Saskatchewan Emergency Management, and Saskatchewan Wildfire Management are developing structure protection plans to allow enough time to take proper measures.