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The rain and cool weather in northern Saskatchewan this past weekend helped firefighters slow the spread of the destructive wildfires.
“We got a little bit of a reprieve. We got some cooler temperatures. We got good rain on some of those fires more to the west of the province than to the east of the province – anywhere between 20 and 25 millimetres,” said Saskatchewan Public Safety Agency (SPSA) President Marlo Pritchard on The Evan Bray Show on Monday.
“That is going to buy us a little bit of a window of opportunity where we can tighten up the flanks. We are going to be bringing on some type three firefighters to get some more boots on the ground.”
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Type three firefighters, according to Pritchard, are community-based teams that have a little bit less training than other firefighters whose job is to help put out hot spots.
“Type threes need a little bit of cooler temperatures, less fire activity, so that they can come in and start mopping up those hot spots,” Pritchard added.
Although the arrival of more firefighters will help, Pritchard admits there’s still a lot of work to do for first responder crews, noting that there’s still plenty of danger in the La Ronge and Hall Lake communities.
Pritchard did have some good news to share when it comes to the Shoe Fire that’s been approaching Candle Lake.
“Candle Lake is not in any imminent danger. The winds have been favourable. This wind will have slowed it down. There’s been work done on mitigation and fire lines like we’ve done in all our other communities,” Pritchard explained.
Essential infrastructure damaged
Over the weekend, SaskPower confirmed to CKOM and CJME that some of its infrastructure was indeed lost because of the wildfires.
SaskPower says that it’s mainly dealing with power poles and transmission structures, with around 175 being either damaged or destroyed.
The Creighton and La Ronge areas so far have been the most impacted.
Pritchard said they’re working with the crown corporation to get those lines repaired as quickly as possible.
“I know there have been a few communities that have been out for a few days. I think the longest I’ve heard is up to four days, but I can tell you the efforts of the SaskPower crewmen and others to get that safe state of ingress and egress from those critical infrastructures is ongoing all the time,” Pritchard said.
Evacuation update
According to Pritchard, 10,000 to 15,000 people have been forced to leave their communities because of the wildfires.
He admits they’ve had a lot of calls and they’re working to get as many people as they can settled somewhere if they’ve been displaced.
“Our group is coordinating and supporting a number of individuals in hotels and shelters. The Red Cross has a number of communities in hotels and shelters. There is some challenges, we’re backlogged a little bit in the in the calls, but we’re doing everything in our power to to ensure that first of all they are safe, second of all, they’re getting what they need to get through this terrible time while they’re displaced from their communities,” Pritchard added.
The SPSA will be hosting another media availability at 1:30 p.m. to update the province on the current wildfire situation. You can listen to the news conference live on 650 CKOM and 980 CJME.
