REGINA- The Saskatchewan Public Safety Agency has provided its latest update on ongoing wildfire and flooding concerns in the province.
According to their latest numbers as of 9.30 a.m. today, they report 56 wildfires active in the province. Of those seven are contained, three are not contained, 36 are ongoing assessment, and 10 are protecting values.
SPSA reports that 41 fires have started or were reported in the last seven days, while 12 fires have been declared out in the last seven days. 30 fires to date have lightning confirmed as the cause.
SPSA President Marlo Pritchard told a conference call of reporters Tuesday that Saskatchewan has seen an increase in wildfires recently, but “the long periods of rain this month, along with dedicated efforts of local communities and SPS crews, have helped protect areas and keep damages to a minimum.”
He said there have been 192 wildfires to date, below the five-year average of 222 and below the previous year of 309.
Pritchard said they are not currently aware of any evacuations, but “we do know that there are a few fires within the 20 kilometres or within 20 kilometres of communities that are having impact on smoke in those areas.”
Pritchard said the SPSA is in communication with Peter Ballantyne, PAGC, and the communities of Sandy Bay, Southend, and Wollaston Lake. He said they are in those communities to support them, whether they are currently planning for evacuation, should that be required, or to look at options around air shelters or looking after those priority 1 and 2 residents that may have health issues and may need to leave the community if the smoke conditions get worse.
Pritchard said they have also escalated the Provincial Emergency Operations Centre to support the activities, as “we have seen increased fire starts across the province.”
SPSA officials also spoke about the flooding concerns in the province. Pritchard said the SPSA has responded to five flooding incidents earlier this year, and also highlighted a high-flow water advisory sent out by the Water Security Agency late last week.
Although they have seen increased regional flooding events, Pritchard said “currently there are no new requests for support from SPSA in regards to flooding events.”
With respect to their air operations, Pritchard said there are two water bombers that are currently being repaired — one water bomber is currently receiving maintenance services and is expected to be online shortly. Pritchard said the SPSA agency is working with the manufacturer to expedite the work on these water bombers, as well as improve the speed at which we receive the necessary parts.
He said due to “the critical conditions where these aircraft operate, there are times where these planes will be temporarily removed for service for repair, which could include federally regulated inspections, ongoing maintenance, and other issues.” He said when these planes are down, SPSA does have the ability to request air assets through mutual aid agreements or compacts.
Pritchard said they received from New Brunswick four 802 skimmer aircraft and one Bird Dog, which are currently in the province and available to do missions needing water bombers. As well there is a federal Q400 that is also in the province to support their air asset missions.
The SPSA’s Bryan Chartrand provided this update on the situation with specific fires going on in the province:
The Gulak fire, 12 km east of Southend, is at approximately 20 hectares in size. It started on June 25 and was caused by lightning.
“Crews are working on that fire,” Chartrand said. “There was a brief moment where we pulled them off because there is another fire just to the east of that fire, and due to the intensity of that fire over the weekend on Sunday, it was taking a bit of a run.”
The nearby SEIR01 fire is approximately 2,500 hectares in size. It started on June 26, again by lightning, and is 16 kilometers east of Southend. “We're starting to get crews and helipads put in, establishing line. We have conducted backburn operations to contain it within natural barriers.
There's lakes and rivers and just bare rock areas with no combustible fuels. So we successfully managed to do that backburn.”
That seemed to halt its progression towards the community, he said.
“So we are starting to get resources put on that fire, in addition to consultations with the community leadership on, you know, just discussions on removing people and or values protection. But again, at this point, things are looking good. They have since stabilized and improved since Sunday as we get additional resources on that fire.”
Also being monitored is the McDonald fire south of Southend.
“Currently with our forecasted winds, the fire isn't going to be going towards the community, but it is a larger fire that is approximately 22 km south of Southend.”
It is 2,500 hectares in size, and started June 26 by lightning.
To the south is the Border fire, approximately 47 kilometers north of Creighton and Flin Flon. It is 9,100 hectares in size and began June 9 by lightning. Sandy Bay is 26 kilometers to the northwest of this fire. Right now there are no threats to any communities from this fire.
The Church fire is currently 12 hectares and is 3.5 kilometers from Sandy Bay. It started by lightning on June 25. Chartrand said crews have been on that fire and continue to work, and they don't anticipate any challenges with that fire with good progress being made.
On the west side is the Whitefish fire that started June 28 by lightning,
The closest community is St. George's Hill 25 km away. Good progress was made and that fire is under contained status.
Next is the Kerslake fire northeast of Wollaston Lake, 19 km away from the community. It is approximately 21 hectares in size and started June 24 by lightning .
“We are assessing this fire for opportunities, pinch points, and burn operations to stall it out from heading towards the community,” Chartrand said.
“Again, we have northeast winds, which will be pushing that fire towards the community of Wollaston Lake. Fortunately enough, this location, there's a lot of fingers and days and water bodies and obstacles in the way of that fire. Our modeling projections show that it will slowly make its way towards the community, but very slowly, and again, lots of opportunities for us to take advantage of and stop it on its tracks.
“Again, we are engaging with the community, looking at priority ones and twos, and making plans for valley protection if need be. Again, the fire is not anticipated to get anywhere near the community in the coming days, even with the northeast wind, and also by the weekend, it looks like potentially, and hopefully, we will get some precip up there. But we are setting staff up to talk with local leadership just to keep them aware of the situation. No cause for concern at this time.”
Regarding the five flooding incidents in nthe southeast of the province Chartrand said these would be flooding events from a week and a half to two weeks ago.
"This isn't anything new. So everything since has improved the conditions. We just have them on our books because we have resources there,' Chartrand said. He noted that in preparation for the rain they have been experiencing and is forecast to continue to come, the communities "wanted to keep those resources there, pumps, hoes, sandbaggers, sandbags, and things like that."
"So, again, for our inventory purposes, we need to keep that as an active incident because our resources are still there. So just because they're there doesn't mean there's an actual flooding event per se, but they wanted to keep it just for safety precautions. And once we see the water that is starting to recede and conditions improve, then we will close those and retrieve our equipment. So currently we don't have any active flooding events that are impacting any communities."
