The English fire currently burning east of Prince Albert has grown to 41,900 hectares in size, which is 1,900 more than Wednesday’s report.
The Saskatchewan Public Safety Agency says rain Wednesday helped limit the spread of the fire, especially on the west side of the fire where it had grown significantly due to wind.
Acting Vice President Steve Roberts said there is no shortage of equipment to help put out this fire.
“Water scooping aircraft (and) retardant aircraft are at the Prince Albert fire base for support as required,” Roberts said. “We have six helicopters assigned to this fire, 12 bulldozers, crew trucks, engines and water tankers are also working on this fire.”
Roberts said more fire crews are being added each day to control what’s still considered a non-contained fire.
“We added two crews (Wednesday) and another two crews (Thursday) in addition to our staff that are already on site.”
When asked about a reported lack of communication between crews and residents in the area of the fire, Roberts said their fire crews will discuss safety measures with local leadership.
“They are the agency responsible for the private land and the residents in their area, they will also be the agency that will decide whether they wish to issue a public alert or an evacuation advisory,” Roberts said. “It is the local leadership, so we work directly with them rather than individual residents.”
Roberts said the investigation is still ongoing, but this fire is believed to have been caused by human activity.
