‘Just across the river:’ Fires near Île-à-la-Crosse subdivisions keep crews busy

Although summer is beginning to wrap up, wildfire season isn’t ending anytime soon.

According to the Saskatchewan Public Safety Agency (SPSA), 41 active fires were burning in the province as of Tuesday. Two of those fires — the Muskeg Fire and the Trail Fire — are not contained, and according to people in Île-à-la-Crosse, the two fires have just merged.

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Vince Ahenakew is the deputy mayor of Île-à-la-Crosse. He said that while the community itself is well defended, some subdivisions are at risk.

“We’re on a peninsula, and the fires two years ago pretty well burned up quite a bit of the area outside of town,” he said.

“As far as the subdivisions go, it’s pretty close, like just across the river, but they’ve (the firefighters) been doing a good job of keeping it contained along the river so it doesn’t cross.”

As for supplies and being able to evacuate, Ahenakew said that fire crews have been able to keep the highways open.

“People are getting their mail, they’re getting their groceries and stuff, so there’s no big issue with that,” he said.

This isn’t Ahenakew’s first wildfire season, and he said he’d like to see some changes.

“I think they need to revamp the fire program. Take a look at it and listen to the people, especially our elders and our retired personnel,” he said.

“They need to sit down with them and come up with a new plan, and probably a little bit faster response time.”

On top of a faster response, Ahenakew said that he’d like to see more boots on the ground.

“There are probably different ways that we can fight the fires, including training of EFF (Emergency Firefighters),” he said.

“I think we need to revamp that and get our local people back in the bush and on the fire line.”

While he said that things like water bombers are great to have, he said the real work is done by the crews on the fire line.

“Now, water bombers and helicopters are helpful; if you don’t have the people on the ground, it will just want to start up again and again,” Ahenakew said.

Active fires in the province on Sept. 2, 2025. (Saskatchewan Public Safety Agency)

Fires in Saskatchewan on Sept. 2

As of 4:30 p.m. on Tuesday, 41 active fires were burning in Saskatchewan on Sept. 2.

SPSA said in its daily report that two of those blazes were not contained, while 26 of the fires were under ongoing assessment and firefighters were protecting values in four. Nine fires were considered contained.

Contained means suppression action is taking place and the fire is not expected to grow in size, ongoing assessment means the fire is being monitored regularly to assess risk to values in the area and not contained means suppression action is taking place but the fire is expected to grow in size, according to SPSA. Protecting values means a fire is active and action is focused on protecting things like cabins and infrastructure.

While the provincial fire ban has been lifted, there are still active bans in eight urban municipalities and eight rural municipalities, with the fire danger considered moderate to high for much of the province.

SPSA says there have been 481 fires in Saskatchewan so far in 2025. The five-year average to date for Saskatchewan wildfires is 415.