Wildfire officials in Saskatchewan have lifted a provincial fire ban because the weather has improved, while thousands from displaced communities in Manitoba have started to return home.
The Saskatchewan Public Safety Agency says the ban was lifted late Wednesday for all Crown lands north of the provincial forest boundary up to the Churchill River.
A notice says provincial parks and municipalities may still have their own fire bans or restrictions in place. Residents have been told to check online for local bans.
At a Thursday news conference, the agency’s Steve Roberts said upwards of 20 millimetres of rain fell in northern Saskatchewan over the last few days, allowing for the fire ban to be lifted.
Roberts said Australian firefighters are also headed home after a month-long deployment. Crews from elsewhere in Canada, as well as the United States and Mexico, remain on hand, as do about 300 military firefighters.
As Atlantic Canada — notably Newfoundland and Labrador, New Brunswick and Nova Scotia — continues to grapple with several mass fires, he said the agency would assess what resources Saskatchewan can send if needed.
“We will make resources available once we no longer have the need,” Roberts said. “We made our partners in Newfoundland and New Brunswick know what we’re releasing, so they have the opportunity to potentially get those resources shifted to them.”
Several areas in Saskatchewan and Manitoba have spent the summer under one or more fire bans due to fires that have forced thousands from their homes. Saskatchewan reported 79 active blazes Thursday.
Agency president Marlo Pritchard said about 1,100 people in Saskatchewan remain out.
Manitoba remains under a provincial state of emergency due to its wildfire season — the worst on record in Manitoba in the past 30 years. The state of emergency is in place until Aug. 22.
There were 161 active fires Thursday in the province.
Manitoba officials said that, as of Wednesday, the fire danger was low in most of the province.
Evacuees from several Manitoba communities have started going home over the last week, as crews have made good progress with the help of rain.
As of Thursday morning, the province said 12,800 people remained out of their homes — down from roughly 14,000 a week ago.
Evacuation orders were lifted earlier this week for the Little Grand Rapids and Garden Hill First Nations, as well as Stevenson Island.
Canada’s military and the Red Cross were brought in to help transfer more than 2,800 people out of Garden Hill in mid-July. The nearby, remote Stevenson Island was later evacuated as fires threatened the area.
Residents of Nisichawayasihk Cree Nation, also called Nelson House, in northern Manitoba also began re-entry this week, after an evacuation order was issued there earlier this month.
Those who left in their own vehicles were allowed to start going back Wednesday. A social media post from the community says flights and bus transportation were expected to begin Friday. There was no word on when evacuees sent out of province might return home.
Elsewhere in northern Manitoba, evacuees from Pimicikamak Cree Nation were told Wednesday they could return home after two separate evacuations this summer.
Manitoba Hydro was also working to reconnect power in at least five northern communities.
The Crown corporation said roughly 1,300 customers were in the dark. More than 1,200 wood poles were damaged or destroyed by fire, along with equipment such as power lines and transformers. About 500 damaged poles have been fixed so far.
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