The wildfire situation in northern Saskatchewan continues to worsen as fires keep growing and more structures are lost.
Premier Scott Moe had told reporters the previous day that he had never seen a fire season like this. On Wednesday, SPSA Vice President of Operatons Steve Roberts concurred.
“If we compare the month of May, the number of fires, the activity of the fire, and the size and complexity of fires, and by that I mean where they’re occurring next to communities and stuff, it has probably been the most difficult fire season for May that I’ve experienced in 21 years,” said Roberts.
“So we’ve had busy fire seasons, but not necessarily this busy, this early, with all of these complications occurring at the same time.”
The weather seems unlikely to help. Roberts reported some new fire starts in that area and also some “scattered precipitation in the southern half of the province, which is not impacting our fire situation.” While conditions are dry another looming issue is light rain accompanied by lightning that could spark fires.
The province is still under a state of emergency because of the wildfire situation, and a fire ban remains as well as a ban prohibiting ATB-UTV use in all areas of the provincial forest to the northern border.
In the situation report for Wednesday, SPSA is reporting 24 current active fires. Nine are not contained, four contained, eight are ongoing assessment and two are protecting property.
Conditions remain dry within the province, though there has been a thunderstorm.
Here is the update from the SPSA report online as of 11:11 a.m. today on the fires of note:
The SHOE fire (Lower Fishing Lake) has now grown even more to 471,418.0 ha. The status is not contained.
“That fire has shut down Highway 912, 913, and 165. Communities of Lower Fishing Lakes, Little Bear, East Trout Lake, and Wayland Bay have all been impacted and have evacuations due to this fire,’ said Roberts.
JAYSMITH (Northeast of Missinipe) is 88,099. ha. and currently protecting values in the area. “It is impacting Highway 2 North, but with smoke, but the highway is open except for occasional periods. So again, check the highway hotline.”
Brabant Lake is still at risk and has been evacuated, and there have been values lost due to the fire.
PISEW (West of La Ronge) is now 141,905 ha. and not contained. It is impacting Highway 102 in the La Ronge area and Highway 910 to Besnard Lake. Communities impacted include Besnard Lake, Hall Lake, Clam Lake, Wadin Bay, Lac La Ronge, La Ronge, and Air Ronge. There have also been numerous communities on evacuation notice including Hall Lake, Nemeiben Lake, Sucker River, Wadin Bay, Sikachu, Clam Crossing, La Ronge, Air Ronge, Lac La Ronge, Eagle Point, Potato Lake, Lamp Lake, and Rabbit Creek.
“We also have an impact to SaskPower, SaskTel Infrastructure north of that site. Currently they are seeking to address the issues with the power outages and the communication outages that have occurred,” said Roberts.
The WOLF fire (West of Denare Beach) is 71,130.0 ha.and is not contained.
“That fire grew significantly yesterday,” said Roberts. “It has impacted Highway 6. So intermittent travel only. It led to the full evacuation of Denare Beach, and it has also led to the full evacuation of the FORAN mine site and all of its staff.”
PELICAN2 (Northeast of Pelican Narrows) is 20,425.0 ha. and is not contained. It is impacting Highway 135 to Pelican Narrows and to Sandy Bay. The communities of Pelican Narrows and Jan Lake are on evacuation.
CLUB (North of Creighton) threatening the Creighton and Flin Flon communities is now 17,327 ha. on Sask side and 60,537 combined on both sides of the border as of 10:55 a.m. today. The status is not contained. Creighton and Denare Beach have been evacuated.
“Highway 106 has been intermittently shut down to this fire. We are directly working with Manitoba government in their response under a joint command system to address this fire and the threat it poses to Creighton, Denare Beach, and Flin Flon, Manitoba,” said Roberts.
DITCH02 (North of Weyakwin) is now 70,000 ha.and not contained. Evacuations include Weyakwin, Resort Subdivision of Ramsey Bay, Northern Hamlet of Timber Bay, and Molanosa. It is directly impacting Highway 2 North and there are highway warnings, restrictions, and guided traffic. It has closed Highway 969.
There are currently 34 evacuations in place in the province and an estimated number of 10,000 to 15,000 people evacuated.
The structure loss exceeds 400, with the largest single area of damage is in the Denare Beach area.
The latest update comes amid reports out of La Ronge indicated fires have impacted some structures in the community itself, with videos posted online of both the RONA store as well as Robertson’s Trading Post both on fire. Both businesses are reportedly destroyed but the fire has not spread to the rest of the town as of yet.
A major announcement coming Wednesday was the Government of Canada saying it will match dollar-for-dollar funds donated to the Canadian Red Cross 2025 Saskatchewan Wildfires Appeal to support wildfire disaster relief and recovery efforts across Saskatchewan. The Government of Saskatchewan itself is immediately providing $15 million to the Canadian Red Cross for that fund.
Roberts also had this message to the public and those who evacuated regarding the fire situation, noting there is a lot of fire activity in the province
“There is lots of activity on the roads, providing both support to these fires, also to allow people to evacuate safely from these fires. If you have been asked to evacuate, kindly do so at the earliest opportunity. And once evacuated, unless asked to return, please make all efforts to stay out. The traffic and the expectation of managing the fires and evacuations is problematic, more so if people are not following the recommendations of their local leadership.
“And in addition to that, because of the dynamic situation with smoke, fire, communication outages, access concerns, there may actually be incidents where you can drive up an hour to do something, but you may not be able to drive back out two hours later. So we really encourage folks to follow the directions of their local leadership, follow the recommendations of the highway hotline. It is gonna make our life easier to manage these wildfires and also keep the population safer as we have to manage during this critical time.”
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