Candle Lake welcoming people back after evacuation order lifted Friday

It’s all systems go at the popular Saskatchewan summer spot of Candle Lake after the voluntary evacuation order was lifted on Friday.

The alert was issued near the end of May and left the resort eerily quiet in what is typically a busy time.

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“Council was so happy to get together and to be able to call the special meeting to lift the alerts,” Candle Lake Mayor Colleen Lavoie said. “It was a great feeling and I’m so glad that people can come back to this community.”

Lavoie said she began to notice an increase in people returning on Friday.

“The traffic was slower because there’s boats, quads and trailers coming back.” she said. “I was sure happy to see that.”

The Shoe Fire, near Little Bear Lake on June 7. (Nova Scotia Department of Natural Resources/Facebook)

The Shoe Fire is still burning near the community. It was still not contained on Sunday, according to Saskatchewan Public Safety Agency’s 10 a.m. update, and was 554,484 ha (more than 1,370,159 acres or larger than the entirety of Prince Albert National Park).

The massive blaze is still around 10 kilometers from Candle Lake.

Lavoie said the village resort is addressing future planning and preparation for wildfires.

“We’ll put together a report on how things were handled and what could be done better next time,” she said. “Our emergency plan will get updated, which will help us all if this ever happens again.”

Jackie Davis, owner of JD Mini Golf, was excited to see the community begin to return to normal.

“Waiting was hard, the unknown was super hard and we got through it,” she said. “(I’m) just looking forward to seeing everybody this summer.”

Davis said the 18-hole mini golf course will reopen soon.

“We’re opening next weekend, starting Thursday evening.”

Davis spent most of her time working on improving the course while the business was closed.

“We’ve done lots of work to the mini golf flower beds, (the) fish pond is up and running,” she said.

Davis said she can’t wait to see the course busy again.

The community is keeping its fire ban in place, despite receiving rain last weekend.

“I think all of us went outside and danced in the rain,” Lavoie said at the time. “I was just happy to go outside and get wet. I think the whole community was.

“We’ve been waiting for rain since the snow melted,” said Lavoie. “We’re grateful … Mother Nature stepped up, hopefully she steps up again here really soon.”

The community received just under one inch (around 25 mm) of rain.

— with files from Will Mandzuk

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