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Thousands of people have had to evacuate their homes in Saskatchewan due to ongoing wildfires, and over 130 of them are staying at Batoche.
Beverly Roberts evacuated La Ronge with her family and they found themselves in Watrous before going to Batoche.
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The Pisew Fire, which has caused significant damage in the La Ronge area, is still not contained, and was 159,485 hectares (394,096 acres or around seven times the size of the city of Saskatoon) on Saturday.
“(That’s) where my sister-in-law lives and my maid of honour lives there as well,” Roberts said. “They opened their homes to us, so that was all we needed to hear, that we were welcome.”
Roberts and her family arrived in Batoche on Friday just ahead of the Edmonton Oilers game against the Florida Panthers in the Stanley Cup Finals.
“We got to watch the hockey game last night, which is kind of sad that Edmonton didn’t win,” she said on Saturday.
Roberts said Batoche has been very welcoming to her and her family.
“I have different mobility issues and everything, (and) they accommodate me here really well,” she said.
“They have just really rolled out the red carpet for us, and we’re really blessed and thankful for everything that they’ve done for us here in Batoche.”
It’s also been a hard time for Roberts and her family, as they’ve lost some important items.
“My husband’s family has lost their home — everything, their memories,” she said. “My brother-in-law’s ashes were still in the house and they weren’t able to grab them, so he was cremated twice.”
Roberts also described the nightmare-like scene when they were leaving La Ronge.
“When you’re going through the smoke and the fire, the flames are right there, and you feel the heat. You’re covering your mouth with a wet facecloth so that you’re not breathing it in. It’s a really ugly feeling to go through,” said Roberts.
“We made it and really that’s all that’s important to us, that everybody makes it.”
Roberts is able to check in on how La Ronge is doing through some of her friends who are frontline responders battling the blaze in the community, but learned of some issues from others who stayed behind.
“We found out that our houses were getting looted and broken into,” she said. “Which has stopped now, because we have people actually watching over those places.”
Connor Johnston, infrastructure project manager with Métis Nation—Saskatchewan (MN—S) said Batoche is hosting 136 evacuees, with room for more.
“I think our maximum is probably around 200,” he said.
“We have a lot of electrified camper sites here, so even as we fill up the rooms that we have available, anyone who has a camper trailer who can come set up here, it would be easier for us to accommodate you.”
Batoche started accepting evacuees on Tuesday and has seen a steady flow of people coming to the community every day.
“We were preparing for our summer festival,” said Johnston. “We already were kind of midway through getting the place ready to accept a lot of people, so we just accelerated the schedule and started bringing people out here.”
Johnston said he’s proud to see how the community has banded together.
“I really feel like it’s the Métis way,” he said. “I’m really proud to be a part of this government (MN—S) in the way that we respond to situations like this.”
— with files from CKOM News
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