Massive Shoe Fire remains uncontained as 84 blazes burn in Saskatchewan

Despite the wet weather across much of the province this weekend, there 84 active fires were still burning in Saskatchewan on Sunday.

Saskatchewan Public Safety Agency (SPSA) said in a 2:30 p.m. report on August 10 that 14 of those blazes were not contained.

Among those not contained include the Shoe Fire near Lower Fishing Lake, the Pisew Fire west of La Ronge, the Ditch Fire north of Weyakwin, the Muskeg Fire north of La Plonge Indian Reserve and Beauval, the Trail Fire west of Beauval, the Park Fire north of La Loche, and the Buhl Fire in Prince Albert National Park and west of Weyakwin.

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The Shoe Fire, first reported on May 7, is still the largest in the province, with SPSA saying it covered 565,701 hectares (more than 1,397,877 acres) on Sunday — nearly 25 times the size of the City of Saskatoon.

The Buhl Fire near Ramsey Bay. (La Ronge Regional Fire Department/Facebook)

Parks Canada said the Buhl Fire is being at approximately just under one kilometre from Ramsey Bay, and just over 30 km from Waskesiu, adding that its daily updates on the blaze have ended. Updates will now be provided Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, it said.

Poor air quality remained over many parts of the province, lingering from Saturday, with warnings and alerts issued by Environment Canada. The smoke was expected to gradually clear by Sunday evening, it said.

More information on air quality alerts for specific areas of the province is available at weather.gc.ca. Information is also available on the Saskatchewan Public Service Agency website at saskpublicsafety.ca and the SaskAlert app.

Environment Canada suggests people check the air quality index for their area as air quality can vary widely.

SPSA also said on Sunday that 43 of the fires were under ongoing assessment and firefighters were protecting values in 18. Nine fires were considered contained.

Contained means suppression action is taking place and the fire is not expected to grow in size, ongoing assessment means the fire is being monitored regularly to assess risk to values in the area and not contained means suppression action is taking place but the fire is expected to grow in size, according to SPSA. Protecting values means a fire is active and action is focused on protecting things like cabins and infrastructure.

As well, fire bans are active in 13 urban municipalities, 15 rural municipalities and four provincial parks in the province, with the fire danger still considered high over much of the northern part of Saskatchewan.

SPSA says there have been 461 fires in Saskatchewan so far in 2025. The five-year average to date for Saskatchewan wildfires is 365.

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