Weekend rain helps firefighters battling flames in northern Saskatchewan

After weeks of battling intense wildfires in northern Saskatchewan, firefighters got some help from Mother Nature over the weekend.

“We saw precipitation on all our fires this weekend, and that was greatly needed and greatly appreciated,” Marlo Pritchard, president of the Saskatchewan Public Safety Agency, said during an appearance on the Evan Bray Show on Monday morning.

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“It’ll really allow our firefighters and our type three-firefighters to get in there and really start hitting the hot spots and strengthening those perimeters so that we can call them contained.”

Listen to the full interview with Pritchard:

Pritchard said firefighters are making good headway in their efforts to fight the fires, and he was optimistic for more progress in the days ahead.

“We mentioned it last week – I think we’re kind of coming out the other end,” he said.

According to the public safety agency’s website, there are currently 13 active wildfires in the province, five of which are not contained. So far this season Saskatchewan has seen 256 wildfires, well ahead of the five-year average of 154.

Pritchard said the progress made in the by firefighters has led to more than 10,000 registered evacuees being able to return to their homes.

The rain over the weekend was much needed, but with thunderstorms making their way across northern Saskatchewan over the weekend some lightning strikes started new fires. But Pritchard said the moisture was able to keep things under control.

“Over the weekend we had a couple lightning strikes, but we were able to deal with them relatively quick because we did have some moisture. They did not spread or get pushed by those 80-kilometre winds like we saw earlier in the spring,” Pritchard explained.

“That will be part of our ongoing summer, but that’s what our staff do. They’re trained to do it.”

Despite things looking better for firefighters, Pritchard said there’s still a lot of work to do to get everyone back home and to keep their homes safe.

“We’re still actively supporting those that self evacuated, and we still have hotels that have individuals from from those communities that are still under an evacuation order,” Pritchard explained.

“We still have Creighton, Denare Beach, East Trout Lake, Whelan Bay and some individuals from Cumberland house that are still being supported in those hotels. We’re really still in the in the response phase.”

Pritchard said he expects there will be a review completed once the wildfire situation has settled down so the agency can look at where it can improve in the future.

“There will always be an after-action review,” Pritchard said.

“That will be definitely a process that we’ll be undertaking. We’ve already pivoted on some aspects that we realized that things were not going as smooth or as good as we can.”

The Saskatchewan Public Safety Agency is expected to share an update on wildfires in the province at a news conference on Monday afternoon.