Saskatchewan wildfires causing evacuations, highway closures

The number of wildfires in Saskatchewan is growing and that’s causing highways to close and communities and recreational campgrounds to be evacuated.

Steve Roberts, the vice-president of operations for the Saskatchewan Public Safety Agency (SPSA), said Friday morning that Sask Alerts have been issued. The intent is to curtail non-essential traffic to the north by the public.

Many highways in the northern part of the province will be impacted either directly by the fire or by smoky conditions.

The Highway Hotline is providing an updated map of which highways are being impacted. Currently:

• Highway 106 (Hanson Lake Road) south of Narrow Hills Provincial Park is closed for 30 kilometres at Smeaton. The fire is within 500 metres of the road in spots. Travellers are being told to use Highway 120 from Candle Lake;
• Highway 102 and 915 near Stanley Mission, north of La Ronge, is closed; and,
• Highway 2 is closed south of La Ronge and the junction at Highway 165 to Creighton is closed.

Smoke from the wildfires is posing a threat for campers and those heading up north.

Campers in Narrow Hills Provincial Park were told to leave as a safety precaution, as were those in Lac La Ronge Provincial Park. On Thursday, the fires forced an evacuation in the White Swan Lake area.

The SPSA continues to provide accommodations and other necessities for 63 evacuees in North Battleford, and 80 evacuees from Whelan Bay.

One power outage was directly related to a fire in the Wollaston Lake and Hatchet Lake area. The fire likely damaged the line into that area.

For safety reasons, crews were not able to get out to repair the line, but an aerial survey is occurring to work on a plan to safely restore service. There is no estimated restore time.

The weather will remain hot and dry for the majority of the province, except in the extreme far north.

Winds have primarily headed north because of a system, but those winds will shift and start blowing towards the south. That will result in the smoke progressing southward past Prince Albert, Saskatoon, and Regina.

In addition, the wind has cleared off smoke from some of the fires in the north, allowing some crews to get better tactical advantages on some of the fires.

Right now, there are 137 active wildfires burning in the province. The total number of fires this year is 382, which is over 170 fires more than the five-year average.

Roberts said the provincewide fire ban will remain in place for the next number of days.