Services restored to communities around Spiritwood, but town still doing without

SaskTel crews worked throughout Tuesday night to restore all services for communities surrounding Spiritwood.

Following an early Sunday fire at the Spiritwood SaskTel building, services have been down for the town, along with the surrounding areas and communities. Services were restored in Mildred, Chitek Lake, Leoville, Shell Lake, Witchekan Lake, Rabbit Lake and Belbutte on Wednesday morning.

However, the town of Spiritwood is still without landline or data services, according to Michelle Englot, SaskTel’s director of external communications.

“We are asking residents in Spiritwood to only make emergency voice calls until all services in the area are restored,” she stated in an email to 650 CKOM.

Englot says the “Cellular on Wheels” service is still operational in the area, as SaskTel works to restore landline and data.

The temporary service mechanism will continue to operate until full service is restored, according to a SaskAlert posted just after 7 a.m. Wednesday.

Moments ago, Sask Alerts updated the ongoing connectivity issues in Spiritwood and area@SaskTel has restored service to the surrounding area, but landline and data services are still out in Spiritwood.

Temporary cell service still seems to be up in the community. #Sask pic.twitter.com/3wz4jYIBYm

— Brady Lang (@BradyLangSK) August 26, 2020

SaskTel says it will continue to provide updates until all services are restored.

Spiritwood is located around 120 kilometres west of Prince Albert and around 110 kilometres northeast of North Battleford.