Sask. wildfires in ‘more confident position’ but Lobstick, Cayford blazes still threat

Saskatchewan’s premier says when it comes to two uncontained wildfires burning in central Saskatchewan, things are in a “much more confident position.”

Scott Moe joined Monday’s briefing by the Saskatchewan Public Safety Agency (SPSA) after spending part of the weekend in his home community of Shellbrook not far from the Lobstick Fire, as well as at the provincial fire control office in Prince Albert.

Read more:

• Sask. Premier Scott Moe addresses Lobstick Fire
• Lobstick Fire: Shellbrook evacuees pack up clothes, passports and Barbies
• Sask. wildfires: Lobstick, Cayford blazes force more than 1,300 to evacuate

“I think we’re in a stronger position today than maybe we were four days ago,” Moe said regarding the Lobstick Fire.

He added that there is more work to do when it comes to the Cayford Fire, located northwest of Hudson Bay.

Cayford Fire

Bryan Chartrand, the SPSA’s exectutive director of land operations, said the Cayford Fire was at 11,500 hectares, which is slightly larger than half the size of Saskatoon.

He said the Red Cross is overseeing evacuations of the Red Earth Cree Nation and Shoal Lake Cree Nation, and has reported 258 people were evacuated from Shoal Lake and 560 from Red Earth.

But an additional 117 vehicles left as well, and Chartrand explained the Red Cross is still working to confirm how many people were in those vehicles.

Community Safety Minister Michael Weger said during a Sunday media briefing there were about 1,200 evacuees from Shoal Lake and Red Earth.

Moe said evacuees from the two communities are mostly in Saskatoon and Regina, with some in Prince Albert and Moose Jaw.

He added access and smoke were the two biggest reasons for moving those people out.

Chartrand said the fire was in an area that was burned in 2021, so there were natural constraints.

“It’s limited on where it can go, so it is giving us time to get resources put on it,” he explained.

The wind is pushing the fire west, so crews were working to protect property in that direction, after using bulldozers to restrain the fire’s growth to the north.

“There’s various cabins on the west side of that fire,” Chartrand said. “No structures have been lost, and a number of them have been protected. The fire burnt past them, but the entire structure, plus yard, have been not touched by the fire, so that’s great news there.”

Lobstick Fire

The Lobstick Fire is just under 19,000 hectares, an area larger than Regina, burning on both sides of the North Saskatchewan River near the Shellbrook area, where 130 people were evacuated.

Chartrand said rain over the weekend helped crews make headway.

“We’ve experienced very minimal growth to the fire yesterday, so our containment lines are holding,” he said. “With the cooler temps and the current forecast of precip coming in the coming days, it’s looking favorable for us, but again, it all depends on whether or not that precipitation actually does occur.

“There’s many times where we think it’s going to come, and it doesn’t, so we don’t hope on that.”

Moe said there was a significant effort to build a fire break on the east side of the fire to protect communities to the east should the wind shift direction. Those communities include Holbein, Crutwell, and MacDowall.

“We wanted to prevent this fire ever having an opportunity to take a run as it has ample fuel alongside the river as it heads into Prince Albert,” he said.

Water bombers were also used to steer the head of the fire towards a lake. Moe said this work was valuable, since an eastern fire guard hadn’t yet been completed.

People evacuated in the Rural Municipality of Shellbrook, were from 70 homes. Moe said they were with family and friends.

The premier called Saturday a turning point.

“The weather was not in our favour Saturday,” he said. “However, with the efforts of driving the head of that fire into the lake, the efforts that all of the fire personnel and individuals had on the west flank of the fire, where a large number of the residential properties and farm yards were, it really started to shift as we found our way through Sunday and now into Monday.

“Although we’re not done and the fire isn’t out, and we need to be prepared for anything to happen.”

Active fires burning in Saskatchewan on June 1, 2026. (Saskatchewan Public Safety Agency/website)

June 1 wildfire update

The Lobstick and Cayford fires were among the 10 burning inthe province on June 1, SPSA said.

Saskatchewan Public Safety Agency (SPSA) said in its daily report that three of those blazes were not contained, while another three of the fires were under ongoing assessment and firefighters were protecting values in one. Three 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 29 urban municipalities, 58 rural municipalities and four provincial parks in the province.

SPSA says there have been 90 fires in Saskatchewan so far in 2026. On this date in 2025 the province had seen 217 blazes. The five-year average to date for Saskatchewan wildfires is 161.

Read more:

• Sask. Premier Scott Moe addresses Lobstick Fire
• Lobstick Fire: Shellbrook evacuees pack up clothes, passports and Barbies
• Sask. wildfires: Lobstick, Cayford blazes force more than 1,300 to evacuate

— with files from CJME News