Saskatchewan’s biggest wildfire takes toll on Narrow Hills Provincial Park

The Shoe Fire, which is approximately 500,000 hectares in size, has caused an unprecedented amount of damage in the Lower Fishing Lake area.

As the biggest fire in Saskatchewan, it’s been a serious challenge for fire crews attempting to slow its spread.

Read More:

• Sask. wildfires update: SPSA looking at possibly lifting some evacuation orders
• Arson charges laid, two arrested after thefts reported from evacuated areas: RCMP
• ‘Blessed and thankful’: Batoche opens doors to Saskatchewan wildfire evacuees

One area that’s seen some serious effects from the fire is Narrow Hills Provincial Park, northeast of Candle Lake.

“It hit the park pretty hard, and it’s not just the core area of the park,” said Paul Johnson, an assistant deputy minister with Saskatchewan’s ministry of parks, culture and sport.

“We lost maintenance sheds. We lost a lot of equipment we have. We have staff housing in that location, some of which burned. The community lost a beautiful town hall that they use for meetings and events like weddings or reunions, and that burned as well.”

While the park did lose a lot of infrastructure to the fire, Johnson said some structures in the park were left unscathed thanks to firefighters’ efforts and a bit of luck.

“Our main administrative office made it through the fires. Our main maintenance building and the water treatment plant in the park made it through the fires,” he said.

“We have a service centre that’s fairly new in Narrow Hills, and it made it through the fire. So while we did lose quite a bit of infrastructure, it wasn’t everything in Narrow Hills.”

As for the cost of the damage and possible repairs, Johnson said it’s still far too early to say.

“I can’t even put a number on it, because in some of those sites that I mentioned we haven’t even been able to get in there yet to assess the damage. We assume everything’s lost,” he said.

“Even some of the things that survived the fire – we have some tractors and skid steers and trucks in Narrow Hills Park that weren’t destroyed, but they were significantly damaged, so it’s just too soon for us to estimate whether that’s salvageable or whether it’s an expense.”

Due to the damage caused by the Shoe fire and the ever-changing fire conditions in the north, the entirety of the Narrow Hills Provincial Park has been closed until 2026.

Johnson said the move was made to allow local vegetation time to regrow.

“The fire burned so hot that the entire landscape was destroyed, so the impacts on the park environment, the ecosystem that makes the parks beautiful, are significant,” he said.

“We need to let the park environment, the nature that people love, take the time to regrow and regenerate.”