Volunteers help battle fire in town north of city

While crews continue to monitor the situation, what RCMP described Sunday as a large fire near Regina Beach has been extinguished.

That's according to Mike Thorley, the chief administrative officer for the town of Regina Beach, who said the surface fire did not result in any reported injuries or major property losses.

“The local fire department, of course, will be monitoring things to make sure that if anything else flares up, they will deal with it accordingly,” he said Monday morning.

Thorley said the fire — which is believed to have started on farmland a kilometre or two south of the town, located roughly 55 kilometres northwest of Regina — was spurred on by high winds. Departments from the neighbouring communities of Lumsden and Bethune were called in to assist.

He also noted that a group of local volunteers, including area farmers, came to assist with labour and equipment.

Thorley said while the wind was an issue, he wouldn't speculate on what could've happened if the fire hadn't been contained.

“All we know is there was a group that came together really quickly,” he said.

Thorley could not provide information on the size of the fire, and would not facilitate an interview with the local fire chief, whom he said would deal with such information.

This comes after Lumsden RCMP issued a news release around 3:15 p.m. Sunday stating that officers were on scene and noting there were local road closings. The release also asked motorists to avoid the area south and southwest of Highway 54.

We can expect that the wildfire season will start sooner and end later and potentially be more explosive.

Police also said at the time that smoke in the area may affect visibility for drivers.

Next to no snowfall from December to February in the Prairies has affected the moisture levels of the soil, and also increased the fire risk.

After the 2023 wildfire season broke records for its intensity in Canada and resulted in the country's first evacuation of an entire capital city, Yellowknife, federal officials are once again warning Canadians to prepare for a record-breaking fire year.

“The temperature trends are very concerning. With the heat and dryness across the country, we can expect that the wildfire season will start sooner and end later and potentially be more explosive,” Minister of Emergency Preparedness Harjit Sajjan said at an April 10 technical briefing.

Early spring forecasts predict an above-normal fire risk for the Prairies in May.

Plans for developing early notification systems for air quality and preparation measures were mentioned by Sajjan, who referred to a training fund with a commitment to train 1,000 new firefighters, as well as an equipment fund launched by the federal government.

Additional funds of up to $285 million over five years will be used to help communities better handle wildfires.

There were 6,623 fires in Canada in 2023, and 15 million hectares were burned. This was seven times the yearly average over the past 10 years. More than 327 megatons of carbon were released from the burning of the wildfires, with the previous record being 138 megatons in 2014. There were eight firefighter deaths and 230,000 evacuations.