Saskatchewan communities coming together to support evacuees and firefighters

It’s a scary time right now for a lot of people in Saskatchewan as wildfires continue to threaten communities in the north.

The one thing evacuees have been able to count on, however, is their fellow man.

Read more:

• Shifting winds, wildfire smoke a huge challenge for Saskatchewan firefighters
• ‘This is the time for all hands on deck in this province, NDP Leader Carla Beck says
• ‘We’re fortunate’: Cabins saved in Lower Fishing Lake wildfire, majority of forest burns

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Individuals and businesses from all over the province are doing their best to accommodate the evacuees in their cities and even finding ways to support the firefighters on the front lines.

For some like Huzni Markos, owner of Selena’s Donair and Pizza in Prince Albert, the way he’s been contributing is by donating meals to the evacuees at the Exhibition Centre.

Markos donated 500 meals and said his goal is to continue doing so in an effort to give back to the people who welcomed him as a new Prince Albert resident years ago.

“To be honest with you, Pelican Narrows, I’ve been a family and friend with these guys from the day when I came to Canada. Moving to Prince Albert in 2009, my first friends were from Pelican, so I have a really close relationship with these guys. So whatever I could do for the people around us, our neighbours, I knew it would be appreciated especially in times of something like this disaster.”

While Markos and his staff are working hard to provide as many meals as they can to evacuees, Selena’s isn’t the only one donating meals.

Other businesses, such as the Subway owned by Harminder Pandher, donated sandwiches and Harold’s Family Foods shut down their deli section to make sandwiches for firefighters.

While some are helping with donations towards the evacuees, others are looking to support the firefighters directly.

Heather Arsenie from Melfort has been taking donations from as far as Saskatoon, then driving them up to the fire front line to donate the meals directly.

Arsenie has taken four truckloads, and some meals were delivered to near Little Bear Lake, by helicopter. She said they were eaten by firefighters within an hour.

“Our goal after a few days of sitting back and just watching and sitting on pins and needles, we needed to do something and after we heard some fridges were getting low on supplies and cases of drinks were gone, we knew we had to somehow get food and drinks up there,” Arsenie said.

“So I put a post out and just asked if the community had any ideas. We were willing to go and purchase and organize it but wondered if anyone else wanted to help and since then the support has been incredible.”

Since Arsenie started organizing the food runs, a ton of people have come together to help, focusing on buying and making things that the firefighters can eat quickly — like sandwiches and wraps.

“Truckloads and truckloads have been headed up. So the first time we took the first load, we kind of risked it and went right to the roadblock and just said ‘OK, is there any way we could get this up there?’, not necessarily with myself but you know with a contractor or somebody that has permission to go with radio and with safety in mind.

“The SPSA said, ‘OK, just give me a minute’ and probably within an hour one helicopter was fired up and waiting for us to load all of our stuff i… and I think an hour later from that the crew was having the sandwiches and drinks and fuelling up themselves with it.”

The president of the Saskatchewan Public Safety Agency Marlo Pritchard said the generosity hasn’t gone unnoticed.

“I was on the road yesterday and I know there are members of the community supporting our staff, supplying sleeping arrangements, bringing food to bases and that is so greatly appreciated by the crews who are working hard, so I really want to acknowledge that,” said Pritchard. “We will get through this, but we need to do it together.”

Food donations aren’t the only way people are helping. Prince Albert City Councillor Danny Brown has opened up his acreage property for people to store boats and campers after evacuating them.

On the first day Brown opened his property, there were 28 boats and trailers parked there. Since then, that number has grown.

“I think this morning the total was about 85 to 90, and then I’ve been getting texts and messages all day so we’ll probably get up to 150 by the end of today. We’ve still got quite a bit of room. We’re not double parking anybody yet, but if we need to we’ll have to jam stuff more in there — we still have tons of room and people are being great about it,” he said.

While he is opening up his yard to others, Brown’s own boat is still in the marina at Candle Lake under the watchful eye of a friend who oversees the marina.

“I think a lot of guys are sticking around to volunteer to help seniors and the other people that are waiting around. There will still be people around there to help other people move out and keep an eye on stuff until this comes to a head.”

— by Nick Nielsen

Read more:

• Shifting winds, wildfire smoke a huge challenge for Saskatchewan firefighters
• ‘This is the time for all hands on deck in this province, NDP Leader Carla Beck says
• ‘We’re fortunate’: Cabins saved in Lower Fishing Lake wildfire, majority of forest burns