More fire bans, more wildfires pop up across Saskatchewan

As warm temperatures and dryness persist over Saskatchewan, more fire bans are being implemented and more wildfires are burning across the province.

The west of the province is currently dealing with the most significant wildfires.

In the northwest, the Clearwater River Dene Nation near La Loche issued an evacuation notice Wednesday and remained evacuated as of 1 p.m. on Thursday.

There are also several wildfires burning near The Battlefords.

The Battlefords Agency Tribal Chiefs told CKOM that right now, it’s all hands on deck when it comes to dealing with fires at the Moosomin First Nation and the Saulteaux First Nation.

The BATC said it’s currently dealing with three wildfires burning in the area of the Moosomin First Nation. Those fires have burned 9,600 acres of land and one of the fires was last reported as being eight kilometres long.

On the Saulteaux First Nation, the agency says the fire is under control, but could reignite again if the winds pick up Thursday afternoon.

While most of the wildfires are in the western part of the province, other municipalities are trying to take precautions where necessary to prevent something similar from happening.

“In the spring, once the snow’s all gone and the land is all dried up, all we’re left with is dry stubble, dry grass and dry trees,” said Blair Cummins, the reeve for the Rural Municipality of Blucher. “So any spark, especially when we get strong winds and low humidity days, a fire can get started and spread so darn fast.”

His community will have a fire ban go into effect Friday at midnight.

“We try to air on the side of caution even if some parts of our RM are a little wetter than other parts,” Cummins said.

“We know there’s people out there who like to do spring cleaning — burn up the dead grass, branches and that sort of thing — but we just have to err on the side of caution. It’s just the safe prudent thing to do,” he added.

According to Cummins, it could take a while before his RM lifts its fire ban.

“There’s not much (rain) in the forecast right now,” he stated. “When it rains, if it’s just a little shower, we won’t remove the fire ban because we can’t put it on and off all spring. What usually gets us lifting the fire ban is when the country starts to green up.”

The Saskatchewan Public Safety Agency said as of 9 a.m. Thursday morning, there were 11 active wildfires burning in the province. Four of those fire were contained, five were not contained, one was under ongoing assessment, and one had prompted the community to start protecting property.

–Editor’s Note: This story has been updated to correct a misspelling of Cummins’ name.