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Wildfires continue to rage on in Saskatchewan as crews were in Beauval to battle the Muskeg fire.
Warman fire crews were there along with crews from Quebec and Australia.
The Warman crew were in the area for a couple of weeks, but most of the team is back home now, according to the fire chief, Russ Austin.
He said this is a very unique fire and that he hasn’t seen a fire act like this before.
“(The) fire behaviour in the last couple of months has been very erratic,” Austin said.
“I don’t think anybody’s seen fire behaviour like that before where you think something is in hand and going one direction, and even without wind, decides to just jump 90 degrees and go do something else.”
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It isn’t just Saskatchewan fire crews in awe of this blaze; fire crews from the United States have also said the same thing.
“It’s been unprecedented in Saskatchewan, even our friends that have come in from the States (say) they’ve never seen behaviour like that,” Austin said.
“Some of the forest hasn’t been forested in a number of years (and) hasn’t had fires go through in a couple of decades or more.”
He said there are lots of leaves and branches on the ground in the forest, which, mixed with the hot weather, have led to a very challenging fire season.
“Anytime you get extended periods of warm weather and wind that dries out the forest, even with the rains that we have, they can knock something down, but they won’t put it out,” he said.
“At the end of the day, we’re going to be dealing with these fires all summer, and probably some of these fires will burn underground into next summer.”
Austin said that’s just how it goes in Saskatchewan.
It’s also been a trying time, and Austin said that the Saskatchewan Public Safety Agency has had their hands full trying to figure out what some of the fires are going to do.
“Some of the fires are burning so hot you can’t directly attack them,” he said. “Nobody would survive being within a couple hundred meters of that fire front, you couldn’t be there, you’d melt.”
Austin said it’s also been difficult to get access to the fires and that most of them can’t be attacked head-on.
“You couldn’t attack a lot of the main fires right up front, but they throw off other fires, and you can deal with those before they become big,” he said.
Austin said that allows crews to steer the fire away from a community.
“In Saskatchewan, you adapt, you shouldn’t take anything for granted, anything can change in a minute,” he said. “As long as you can keep your troops safe and still fight that fight.”
Austin thanked all the fire crews for helping out and pulling together as one big team.
“It’s been a very trying and difficult fire season,” he said. “But I don’t think you could do it without the teamwork of everybody.”
