Murray Wood: Who's hot and who's not
Every Friday, Murray Wood takes a look at the week's news and decides who's hot and who's not. Today's list includes tho...
The sun is out, the air is warm and the land is dry in Saskatchewan — which makes for a perfect recipe for grass or wildfires.
On Friday afternoon, Saskatchewan Public Safety Agency’s website showed 40 fire bans in effect in Saskatchewan, with six active wildfires.
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Saskatchewan fire bans on May 2, 2025. (Saskatchewan Public Safety Agency)
Earlier this week, the Rural Municipality of Blucher issued a fire ban and Mike Steckhan, Aberdeen and Blucher Fire Chief, said that is still in place.
“Our municipality has extended the fire ban,” he said. “It’s pretty much a judgement call by the municipal government as to how dry things are.”
The fire department hasn’t responded to any grass fire calls in the R.M. since the ban started and Steckhan said the fire ban rules in Blucher are very strict and rightfully so.
“In the R.M. of Blucher … a fire ban means no outdoor fires,” he said. “You can’t burn your garbage without a notification, you really can’t go camping and have an open fire — and that is just entirely reasonable.”
Steckhan said any little thing could spark a major grass or wildfire.
“You flip a cigarette butt out onto the grass and if there’s a breeze blowing that could do it,” he said.
“A couple years ago some people were having a fire in their backyard and sparks got away from them and got into the grass and the low lying bush a few yards away … it doesn’t take much.”
Saskatchewan Puiblic Safety fire risk map for Friday showed most areas of the province had a high fire risk.
The fire risk in Saskatchewan on May 2, 2025. (Saskatchewan Public Safety Agency)
Steckhan said there isn’t much that property owners can do to prevent a grass fire but added it is important to remove anything that can help fuel a blaze.
“The best thing you can do is prevent a fire in the first place,” he said.
“Don’t let the grass get long in your yard, keep the grass trimmed down and cleaned up … same with trees, brush, don’t let a lot of dead underbrush lay around.”
Watering a lawn won’t help much, Steckhan said.
“… that’s just a small piece of very carefully cultivated grass in front of your house,” he said. “Water your lawn if you want, that’s great but it’s not going to deal with a 10 or 20-acre grass fire.”
Blucher and Aberdeen Volunteer Fire Department recently got a new truck specialized to fight grass fires but so far they haven’t had to use it.
— with files from CKOM News
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