REGINA — The Saskatchewan Public Safety Agency continues to respond to two major wildfires that have forced people out of their homes in north-central and northeastern Saskatchewan.
In a conference call with reporters Monday morning, Premier Scott Moe sounded hopeful that conditions were becoming more favourable for firefighters, both in terms of the weather and their own efforts toward containing the fires.
"I think we're in a stronger position today than maybe we were four days ago when it comes to the Lobstick fire," Moe said. "We have some more work to do with respect to the Cayford fire and the Lobstick fire."
Regarding the Cayford fire, Moe said they have seen a number of evacuations, "probably the largest number of evacuations in the province, largely due to excess smoke, those types of things, as that particular fire continues to spread."
He noted officials indicated that the fire had "taken a little bit of a run over the weekend." In excess of 1,000 people have been evacuated from the community of Red Earth, he said, and Moe said there are also some evacuations from Shoal Lake to "Regina, Saskatoon, maybe a few in Prince Albert and Moose Jaw."
Moe said they continue to address that fire as "it continues to be very much one of the two fires of concern in this province."
The second is the Lobstick fire, which "started on the south side of the Saskatchewan River in the vicinity of Duck Lake, between Duck Lake and Prince Albert, and has since jumped to the north side of the river as well."
That fire has particularly impacted the RM of Shellbrook, near Moe's home community, the Town of Shellbrook. He said in the RM of Shellbrook about 130 people were evacuated, or about 70 households, and there was a tremendous local effort alongside the SPSA to "have water on those homes over the course of the weekend."
Moe pointed to "huge efforts by local governance organizations, rural municipalities, volunteers, local fire departments and the SPSA."
Moe said he had the opportunity to see that effort firsthand. He said he spent the weekend in and out of the Prince Albert Fire Control Office and the local RM office in Shellbrook.
Moe thanked them for making every effort to keep homes safe, and for making "every effort to contain the fire as it is. But also to put in place some strategic, I think, containment initiatives so that should the wind shift, that we are protecting the communities to the east."
Those communities would include Holbein and Crutwell, running right into the City of Prince Albert, as well as communities on the south side of the North Saskatchewan River, including Macdowall.
Moe said there has been a significant effort on both sides of the river to build up fire protection on that eastern flank. This is in case the wind should shift and start to come from the west in a more traditional way, to "prevent this fire ever having an opportunity to take a run as it has ample fuel alongside the river, as it heads into Prince Albert. And we all know the communities and the acreages that are in that space."
Moe said that with "a little bit of weather" and a "lot of effort," they were in a "much more confident — not a position of confidence — but we're in a much more confident position than we have been in over the course of the weekend."
Bryan Chartrand, executive director of land operations for the SPSA, spoke of the risk level for people in the Shellbrook and Holbein areas.
They were still in "high conditions, but fortunately we did receive some precipitation over the fire over the weekend, which assisted with our suppression efforts. So that did give us a good operational period yesterday to establish lines, get dozer lines in, and bolster our response."
Chartrand said they experienced "very minimal growth to the fire yesterday" and "our containment lines are holding."
He said with the cooler temperatures and the current forecast of precipitation coming in the coming days, it's "looking favourable for us."
"But again, it all depends on whether or not that precipitation actually does occur. There's many times where we think it's going to come and it doesn't. So we don't hope on that. So we still have various contingency backup plans and support lines if we continue to be challenged."
Moe noted that water bombers had been deployed to help steer that fire toward a lake and keep it from making a run at a fire guard on the eastern flank that the SPSA was in the process of getting built.
"And so the fact that the bombers were able to head that off into the lake before it approached that fire guard that was trying to be built there, I think is tremendous not only for the situation that we're in today, which is much better than we were Saturday, but for us trying to contain and prevent this fire from heading east towards Holbein, Crutwell and ultimately into the Prince Albert area," Moe said.
He said the "fast action and the capability of our pilots and the SPSA to deploy on such short notice to stop what was essentially the fire trying to make a run for that eastern flank, and drive that head into the lake and settle things down, I think is a large reason why we are in the position that we are today. And so for that, we're grateful."
As for the Cayford fire, Chartrand reported it is still not contained and now stood at 11,500 hectares. He said they have crews, aircraft and dozers currently working on that fire.
"We did get a dozer line and restricted the growth to the north side of that fire. And we're continuing to reinforce that line so that it doesn't impact the road just north of that fire."
But he acknowledged the fire did grow on the west side and crews have been setting up protection. A key concern has been keeping the fire away from properties in the area.
"There's various cabins on the west side of that fire. No structures have been lost. A number of them have been protected. The fire burnt past them. But the entire structure plus yard have been not touched by the fire. So that's great news there."
Chartrand said they will "continue to assess and monitor those values and continue to put more resources on it to get it contained." While they are hoping for some better weather, it's "less likely that we're going to receive any precipitation on that eastern side."
Chartrand said conditions are "going to remain high. So we're expecting vigorous fire activity. But again, we will be resourcing that fire up and hopefully getting that thing dealt with."
As for evacuations, the SPSA is reporting those who had to leave the Shellbrook area are staying with family and friends, but said if anyone needed accommodations, "we are here to help them."
As for Red Earth and Shoal Lake, those evacuations are being handled through the Red Cross. Chartrand said the numbers the Red Cross had reported to the SPSA are that Shoal Lake has evacuated 258 individuals, and Red Earth has evacuated 560.
But Chartrand said they do not have a total for Red Earth, saying there are also "an additional 117 vehicles that left, and they are confirming the individuals of how many people were in each one of those vehicles." Again, the Red Cross is assisting with those evacuations.
