A wildfire burning near the Village of Beauval has prompted a mandatory evacuation order for the nearly 700 resident living in the area. (Janet Geddes/ Facebook)

Beauval general store manager stays, as village recieves mandatory evacuation order

By Lara Fominoff Jul 3, 2025 | 5:25 PM

Nearly 700 residents of the Village of Beauval, in northwestern Saskatchewan, are leaving their community by charter bus or by car because of the threat of an encroaching wildfire.

Fab Damodharan, who manages the Beauval General Store, won’t be one of them.

Damodharan has lived in the area for the last five years. On Thursday, July 3, notices were posted by the village office, notifying residents of a mandatory evacuation order.

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That order has been confirmed by the Saskatchewan Public Safety Agency (SPSA).

“Our store is about seven kilometres from the Village of Beauval, and there’s a lot of smoke up here since two or three days (ago). It’s getting worse because of the wind,” he said.

A Facebook page called “Beauval EOC” that appears to be moderated by the local village government, offered information for locals and an emergency contact number.

“At the SPSA’s recommendation due to the heavy heavy smoke coverage predicted for tomorrow and with the wind shift happening and the unpredictability of the fire paths, we are upgrading the priority evacuation to a mandatory evacuation,” one of the posts read.

But Damodharan was informed that his family had to stay. His wife and three other family members also work at the store.

“I can not leave because I was told I need to keep it (the store) open for essential people staying back, and the fire crew and the fire trucks.

“We have a gas bar and a grocery side, so we need to keep it open, not all day long – but we need to keep it open for essential things for them,” he explained.

He said at this point, he’s not worried; however, he’s also never experienced a wildfire situation like this before. He said he’s got enough supplies in the store for the time being.

“We got our freight today, and we’re pretty full with stock, and we don’t need to worry about it for a few days,” Damodharan said.

At this point, he believes the fire may be between 12 and 15 kilometres from the village.

“A lot of people are panicking; they’ve got kids. The elders have already left, and some people are worried about their pets. Other than that, everything is OK so far,” he added.

650 CKOM has also reached out to Beauval Mayor Rick Laliberte for comment.

On Wednesday, the SPSA announced several other areas, including Bear Creek, Lac La Plonge, and the La Plonge Reserve, have also been evacuated because of the Muskeg wildfire.

Fires in Saskatchewan on July 3

As of 5:30 p.m. on Thursday, 66 active fires were burning in Saskatchewan on July 3.

SPSA said in its daily report that 20 of those blazes were not contained, while 26 of the fires were under ongoing assessment and firefighters were protecting values in 11. 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 20 urban municipalities, 22 rural municipalities and two provincial parks in the province, with the fire danger considered high to moderate for much of the province.

SPSA says there have been 333 fires in Saskatchewan so far in 2025. The five-year average to date for Saskatchewan wildfires is 190.