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It was like winning the lottery for people in Candle Lake, as the skies finally opened up and dropped some rain on the community and the surrounding area, including the nearby Shoe Fire.
The community received just under one inch (around 25 mm) of rain on Saturday, but it was enough to make people breathe a sigh of relief.
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“I think all of us went outside and danced in the rain,” Colleen Lavoie, Mayor of Candle Lake joked. “I was just happy to go outside and get wet. I think the whole community was.
“We’ve been waiting for rain since the snow melted,” said Lavoie. “We’re grateful … Mother Nature stepped up, hopefully she steps up again here really soon.”
According to the Environment and Climate Change Canada’s forecast there is more rain in the forecast for the resort village and surrounding area starting Friday night.
Lavoie said she expects the moisture from the most recent rainfall to be soaked up by the ground by the end of Tuesday.
“By Wednesday we could have spot fires show up and Thursday the winds might not be in our favour,” said Lavoie.
“(We’re) praying for rain everyday, the whole community is doing that, because Mother Nature can be a beast.”
The rain also provided the community with a much needed break.
“Sunday was a day of calm and rest,” said Lavoie. “We’ve been under high alert since May 25, so it’s been a couple really hard weeks and I think everybody just tried to take it easy.”
On Monday, a group of nearly 60 people were out on the trail helping the community.
“Our people in town in our fire department and search and rescue and most people are being deployed going neighbourhood to neighbourhood to make sure that for anybody that isn’t here that everything is off their deck and if there’s any flammable materials that it’s put far enough away from their house.”
The Shoe Fire is keeping crews on the edge of their seat.
On Monday, Saskatchewan Public Safety Agency (SPSA) said the Shoe Fire had burned more than 500,280 hectares, or around 1,236,221 acres of land — more than the size of the whole of Prince Albert National Park — and is still considered not contained.
“What we’re being told is (the rain) will have calmed the fire down,” said Lavoie. “It’s probably still smouldering and it wasn’t enough to extinguish it because it was a very hot fire.”
SPSA said the blaze is now 10 kilometers away from Candle Lake.
So far no mandatory evacuation order has been issued for the resort village, but the community remains under a voluntary evacuation order.
Candle Lake restaurant feeding emergency crews
During all the chaos at least one restaurant in the village has remained open to support people fighting the flames.
Wayne Tucker, chef and owner of Emma’s Kitchen, says he was contacted by SPSA.
“They said, ‘Can you make food for the crews working the highway?’ and I said, ‘Oh definitely,’” Tucker said in an interview. “The numbers just increase daily.”
Tucker and his wife, along with a couple of servers, have been working long hours to keep firefighters and emergency crews fed.
“I get up at four o’clock every day to start up the kitchen and get breakfast ready,” he said “We do a nice breakfast buffet for around 50 to 60 daily then we put together sandwiches and lunch bags, an average of 50 to 80 depending on the day.”
The team recently added a hot supper option as well.
“We just started doing a full dinner for them, too so they get a nice hot meal at the end of a long day,” he said.
While Emma’s Kitchen is being compensated by SPSA for each meal, Tucker says that’s not why they’re doing it.
“Money doesn’t really matter. It’s more about serving them and just making sure they have fuel so they can fight the fires,’ he said.
The response from both the firefighters and community has been overwhelmingly positive.
“The firefighters are just loving it. They’re very grateful,” Tucker said. “The community is grateful as well and happy with what we’re doing”
Tucker said the one customer brought in baking and asked if she could post on Facebook to encourage others to do the same.
“We said, ‘Yeah, go ahead’ and one day we had a table full of baking,” Tucker said. “Then we did a thank-you post, and we had three tables of baking, then four.”
It’s a small but growing example of how rural communities pull together in times of crisis.
“I think just coming together as a community, that’s the biggest thing,” Tucker said. “Anything going on, like a fire or earthquake, you know the community sticks together and helps each other. It helps everyone stay strong.”
He said he’s also received support from outside the region, including from Fort Qu’Appelle and Moose Jaw.
Tucker hopes other businesses can find ways to help too, even in small gestures.
“I Just wanna thank everyone working on these fires to help save our community,” he said “Hopefully the fire doesn’t get here”
— with files from 980 CJME’s Jacob Bamhour and CKOM News
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