Sask. wildfire evacuees return home, provincial highway access open

With wildfire conditions improving in Saskatchewan, evacuated communities in the province are now able to return home and provincial highway access is open.

According to the latest update from the Saskatchewan Public Safety Agency (SPSA) as of Wednesday afternoon, 49 active wildfires were burning in Saskatchewan.

Six of those fires were not contained, with another 25 under ongoing assessment and firefighters were protecting values in another 10. Eight fires were considered contained.

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Steve Roberts with the SPSA said a large number of these fires have been contained in the last week and a half.

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.

The provincial fire ban has also been lifted, but there are active fire bans in five rural municipalities and eight urban municipalities.

So far this year, there have been 467 wildfires in Saskatchewan. The five-year average is 385.

Roberts said the SPSA has also released external resources brought in to help fight the fires, which include support from Australian partners and two water bomber planes have returned.

Roberts said members of the Canadian Armed Forces brought in are also returning home, with half leaving on Wednesday and the remainder on Friday.

Roberts said based on the current wildfire situation, he does not expect Saskatchewan will need to bring the military back to tackle the fires.

“We are retaining some other out-of-province resources, and we are continuing to rely on our local type three firefighters to meet the needs to continue to work on these fires as we approach the fall,” Roberts said.

Roberts said the total number of evacuees throughout the province is comparable to 2015, when a large-scale evacuation left around 13,000 people displaced.

However, Roberts said looking at the number of communities that have been evacuated, “this has by far been the largest fire season in Saskatchewan.”