Jim Arnold, chief of the Candle Lake fire department, helped defend the resort village from the flames as it was placed under a state of emergency last year. He said he’s expecting more of the same this summer.

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“I think this year is going to be another year that we’re going to have some forest fires, because we’ve got drought in the northern forest,” he said.

The Saskatchewan Public Safety Agency will get $140 million in this year’s budget, an increase of $20 million over the year before. Finance Minister Jim Reiter defended the funding, saying the provincial government will respond if the flames becoming overwhelming this year.

“It’s always difficult with those kinds of things,” he said. “It’s essentially a bit of a status quo, with an increase. There’s another new plane coming online – water bomber coming online – so there’s an increase in that regard… But hopefully we don’t have the kind of year we did last year.”

The fire department at Candle Lake helped respond to wildfires at East Trout Lake last summer, where many structures were damaged in the fires.

Homes destroyed in East Trout Lake in 2025 after the massive Shoe Fire merged with the Camp Fire. (SaskLakes.ca/Facebook)

Arnold said he hoped to see more funding for prevention, education and equipment to help communities to fight flames and prevent fires from breaking out in the first place.

“Things like fire breaks around communities, things like having enough sprinkler protection to protect communities,” he said. “Honestly, we need to put way more money into preparing for wildfires rather than fighting wildfires.”

Arnold said he would like to see more funding to going towards forestry management, thinning out trees and dead wood that can fuel flames.

Tax credit for volunteer first responders doubled

Aaron Buckingham, president of the Saskatchewan Volunteer Firefighters Association, said many people left their jobs to fight flames during last year’s devastating wildfire season.

In recognition of the sacrifices made by volunteers, the provincial budget doubled the volunteer first responders’ tax credit from $3,000 to $6,000.

“None of us do it for the money. None of us do it to be reimbursed. None of us do it to be recognized,” Buckingham said.

“This is a nice thing the government is doing for us.”

The federal government previously raised its version of the tax credit for volunteer first responders to $6,000, and Arnold said he wasn’t surprised to see the province do the same.

“Giving the tax incentives allows volunteer firefighters to retain the people they’ve got, and perhaps give the incentive enough to bring in new firefighters,” Arnold said.

“It’s tough to get volunteer firefighters. It really is.”

The Davidson Fire Department was called in to assist the Craik and District Volunteer Fire Department for a house fire in Aylesbury at 6:15 p.m. on March 9.

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According to a Facebook post by Davidson Fire, crews arrived and found a basement engulfed in flames. Nobody was in the home when crews arrived.

Crews tried to attack the fire inside the home, but the floor was repretdly compromised and fire had spread into the walls of the home. Crews decided to handle the fire from outside, instead, and kept it contained to the home.

Davidson Fire was cleared from the scene around 12:19 a.m. on Tuesday.

Whitewood Fire Department said in a Facebook post on Saturday that they were called to the landfill where a large hill of garbage had ignited around 6:15 p.m. and crews spent nearly eight hours in frigid conditions to get the fire under control.

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The department said crews had to battle -35 C weather, frozen water lines, frozen trucks and equipment, and “frozen firefighters”, and the blaze was finally extinguished around 1:50 a.m. with the help of landfill employees who used three dozers, a track hoe, loaders and a dump truck to spread the garbage and haul snow and dirt to help contain and smother the flames.

The blaze was finally extinguished around 1:50 a.m. with the help of landfill employees who used three dozers, a track hoe, loaders and a dump truck to spread the garbage and haul snow and dirt to help contain and smother the flames. (Whitewood Fire Department/Facebook)

Due to the extreme cold, two fire trucks had to “rotate back and forth to town” to refill with water and allow them to thaw before returning, the Facebook post said, and the cold temperatures also prevented three other fire departments from helping out with with water tankers.

The department also said that many firefighters also responded to the call “without having ate supper.”

Whitewood around 175 km east of Regina on Highway 1.

Fire in vacant Saskatoon building

Saskatoon Fire Department (SFD) crews also had to deal with extreme cold when they were called to a fire in an empty building in the Kelsey-Woodlawn neighbourhood on Saturday morning.

SFD said in a news release on Jan 24 that when crew arrived at the building in on Stanley Place just before 9 a.m., firefighters working in -33 C temperatures had to force their way into the building that was boarded up. A search found no one inside, and the department said that “all occupants safely evacuated.”

A fire investigator is working to identify the cause, origin and damage estimate, SFD said.

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]]> https://www.cjme.com/2026/01/24/extreme-cold-challenges-whitewood-firefighters-during-huge-landfill-blaze/feed/ 0 https://www.cjme.com/2026/01/22/house-lit-up-like-a-christmas-tree-in-regent-park-fire-eyewitness/ https://www.cjme.com/2026/01/22/house-lit-up-like-a-christmas-tree-in-regent-park-fire-eyewitness/#respond Thu, 22 Jan 2026 15:51:37 +0000 CJME News 2026-01-22T19:00:13+00:00 https://d559.cms.socastsrm.com/?p=948955 Firefighters responded to a house fire on the 100 block of Pasqua Street on Thursday morning. (Regina Fire/X) Regina Fire & Protective Services responded to a house fire on the 100 block of Pasqua Street between Sherwood Drive and Donahue Avenue on Thursday morning.

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Rawlco Radio employee Amanda Fisher said when she was driving in the area when she saw “a huge ball of fire.”

“There’s firefighters running around and you just see the bones of the house. Really you can’t tell it was a house. It’s a chaotic scene right now,” said Fisher in a phone interview.

She added the street was “lit up like a Christmas tree.”

Fisher said Pasqua Street between Sherwood Drive and Donahue was “completely blocked off.”

The fire was reported at 8:08 a.m.

This photo shows the house on the 100 block of Pasqua Street after a fire on Thursday morning. (Jacob Bamhour/980 CJME)

Deputy fire chief Gord Hewitt said there was significant fire and smoke when firefighters arrived at the home.

“When we showed up, the garage and house were involved in the fire,” he said.

He said crews are still on the scene right now “doing salvage and overhaul.”

An inspector will complete an investigation to determine where the fire started, noted Hewitt.

No injuries were reported.

“The fire is now under control and crews and continuing salvage and overhaul. All searches completed and no injuries reported,” the fire department said in a statement.

The fire at Country Corner Donuts, on the corner of Dewdney Avenue and Broad Street, left behind quite a bit of smoke damage, and owner Vuong Pham said thick smoke was clouding the entire store when he arrived at 4 a.m. on Monday, after being alerted by a call from his alarm system.

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“My thoughts were, ‘Oh my God, what happened? My business… I feel very bad because it is all my life in here,” Pham told 980 CJME.

“I have never seen smoke like that before.”

He said he opened the windows and doors to vent the smoke, then grabbed a bucket and began dousing the flames. He also called 9-1-1 to get help from the fire department.

“The business owner initially attempted to extinguish the fire when he arrived at the scene, and it was quickly brought under control by the responding fire crew,” Regina Fire & Protective Services said in a statement issued on Wednesday morning.

“The business sustained significant smoke damage, with fire damage confined to where the fire started.”

The fire department said its investigators, working alongside Technical Safety Authority Saskatchewan, determined that the fire was accidental, “resulting from the failure of a commercial appliance.”

No injuries were reported in the fire, and Pham said he plans to reopen the shop as soon as possible, though it may be some time as the damage is extensive. On Monday, he said his next step will be to talk to his insurer.

The fire comes after many struggles for Pham at his store, including a string of vandalism attacks where someone broke several windows and wrote racist graffiti on the building. The shop was vandalised at least five times between 2021 and 2022.

–with files from 980 CJME’s Abby Zieverink

The smell of smoke still lingers in Country Corner Donuts, on the corner of Dewdney Avenue and Broad Street, after a fire broke out.

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“It’s not a very good start to the new year,” said the store’s owner, Vuong Pham.

Pham said when he got a call from the alarm system around 4 a.m. on Monday, he ran as quickly as he could to get to his shop.

“My thoughts were, ‘Oh my God, what happened? My business… I feel very bad because it is all my life in here.”

When Pham arrived in the store, he said thick smoke clouded the entire store — making it impossible to see even the lights left on in the shop.

“You can’t see anything. I have never seen smoke like that before.”

He saw the fire at the front counter, ran to open the doors and windows and turned on a fan to try to clear out the smoke. After that, he said he grabbed a small bucket to start dousing the fire with water.

“You have no choice, you just have to hurry to go; quick, quick, quick as you can.”

Store owner Vuong Pham said his hands are left covered in black soot after running into his smoke-filled business on Monday morning. (Abby Zieverink/980CJME)

Pham ended up calling 9-1-1 for the fire department’s help.

Now, parts of the front counter are charred black, walls are coated with soot and shards of glass covered the ground.

Store owner Vuong Pham said he tried to put out the fire, which broke out at the front counter, with buckets of water. (Abby Zieverink/980CJME)

He said knowing the support he has received from the community over the years running his store has made him stronger.

“You don’t need too much to live, the first and second, (is that) you love the store and the third thing (is) the people. The people are so nice and how long you live in here, see people come, see people leave, and see people die; that makes me stronger.”

Pham said he plans to reopen his store as soon as he can.

“That’s for sure, open again because this is a good place to live.”

He said the next steps will be talking to the insurance company. He said that while the damage is not too extensive to his equipment, smoke damage is the biggest issue.

The fire comes after many struggles for Pham at his store, including a string of vandalism attacks where someone broke several windows and put racist graffiti on the building. In less than a year, his store had been vandalised at least five times between 2021 and 2022.

“After that, people know me now more, and they come back. We were doing very well until the city shut down Dewdney Avenue last year and the year before.”

Regina Fire said there is no damage to the outside of the building, but said there is some damage inside Country Corner Donuts. (Abby Zieverink/980 CJME)

Pham said having Dewdney shut down for the revitalization project resulted in sales dropping at Country Corner Donuts by around 25 per cent.

“Then they opened in November, and we started doing better, and now this happened. I hope this doesn’t take too long, and we can reopen again.”

He said last week, and just this past weekend, business was busy but the fire put a damper on things.

“Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, and even Sunday, crazy!  I don’t know where people are from; they all pulled out here. Donut, donut donut, soup and sandwich; and now Monday …. bam …. What can you do?” Pham sighed.

Regina Fire said the cause of the fire is under investigation.

In a letter to parents, principal Craig Vanthuyne said the fire started in an upstairs room and triggered the school’s sprinkler system.

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“The fire was contained to a single room,” he wrote. “There is water in parts of the building from the sprinkler system.”

Sun West School Division said the fire alarm was triggered at 5 p.m. and noted that nobody was hurt.

“Students and staff in the building at the time evacuated when the fire alarm was triggered and evacuated safely following school fire protocols,” Sun West’s Mike Fedyk said in a statement.

“The school’s sprinkler system activated and contained the fire to the classroom where it started.

“While fire damage was limited, adjacent areas experienced smoke damage, and water damage occurred in spaces beside and below the affected room.”

The school division said the fire is not being investigated as suspicious. It said early findings show the fire started at a plug-in connecting to the school’s hydroponics lab.

Crews will assess the damage and start cleaning up the building on Tuesday. The division said more information on whether kids will be let back into the school on Wednesday will be provided at a later time.

Those people gave a glimmer of hope for families whose loved ones were missing in the aftermath of Thursday’s fire at the Alpine ski resort of Crans-Montana that killed 40 people and injured more than 100 others.

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“I’m looking everywhere. The body of my son is somewhere,” Laetitia Brodard, from Lausanne, Switzerland, told reporters Friday evening. “I want to know where my child is and be by his side. Wherever that may be, be it in the intensive care unit or the morgue.”

On Saturday, she told French broadcaster BFM TV that “we, parents, are starting to get tired … and anger is starting to rise.”

Brodard said she received a message from her son just after midnight saying “Happy New Year, mom, I love you,” and she replied “Happy New Year, big guy, have a good time.” That was their last contact.

The severity of the burns has made it difficult to identify both injured and deceased, requiring families to supply authorities with DNA samples. In some cases, wallets and any identification documents inside were turned to ash in the flames. An Instagram account has filled up with photos of people who were unaccounted for, and friends and relatives begged for tips about their whereabouts.

Flowers are placed in front of the sealed off Le Constellation bar in Crans-Montana, Swiss Alps, Switzerland, Saturday, Jan. 3, 2026, where a devastating fire left dead and injured during the New Year’s celebrations. (AP Photo/Antonio Calanni)

A nerve-wracking wait

On Saturday, regional police said the bodies of four victims — a boy and a girl, both aged 16, an 18-year-old man and a 21-year-old woman, all Swiss — had been identified and handed over to their families. They said the identification of other victims was pressing on, and gave no further information.

“It’s a wait that destroys people’s stability,” said Elvira Venturella, an Italian psychologist working with the families of those who were at the bar. “And the more time passes, the more difficult it becomes to accept the uncertainty, not having information.”

Swiss officials acknowledged the prolonged heartache.

“The priority today is truly placed on identification, in order to allow the families to begin their mourning,” Beatrice Pilloud, the Valais region’s attorney general, told reporters Friday during a news conference.

Swiss officials said Friday afternoon that 119 people were injured, 113 of whom had been formally identified.

On Saturday, Italy’s ambassador to Switzerland, Gian Lorenzo Cornado, told reporters he had just been briefed by local authorities that the total number of injured stood at 121, five of whom hadn’t yet been identified. He said 14 Italians were being treated in hospitals.

Cornado acknowledged that “there’s a lot of stress,” but said it was right for authorities to have a “strict procedure” and share information only when it is “accurate and 100% sure.”

Swiss police said Friday that the injured included more than 70 Swiss nationals and over 10 each from France and Italy, along with citizens of Serbia, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Luxembourg, Belgium, Portugal and Poland.

A stream of mourners and well-wishers bearing flowers continued to flow to makeshift memorials of bouquets and candles outside Le Constellation, some consoling one another with hugs as they shed tears. “RIP you are all our children” said one of the handwritten notes.

A man runs in the early morning in Crans-Montana, Swiss Alps, Switzerland, Saturday, Jan. 3, 2026, where a devastating fire in the Le Constellation bar left dead and injured during the New Year’s celebrations. (AP Photo/Baz Ratner)

‘You can’t imagine the pain I saw’

Investigators said Friday that they believe sparkling candles atop Champagne bottles ignited the fatal fire when they came too close to the ceiling of the bar crowded with New Year’s revelers around 1:30 a.m. Thursday.

“We were bringing people out, people were collapsing. We were doing everything we could to save them, we helped as many as we could, we saw people screaming, running,” Marc-Antoine Chavanon, 14, told The Associated Press in Crans-Montana on Friday, recounting how he rushed to the bar to help the injured. “There was one of our friends: She was struggling to get out, she was all burned. You can’t imagine the pain I saw.”

Many of the injured were in their teens to mid-20s, police said. Authorities planned to look into whether sound-dampening material on the ceiling conformed with regulations and whether the candles were permitted for use in the bar.

Officials said they would also look at other safety measures on the premises, including fire extinguishers and escape routes. The region’s top prosecutor has warned of possible prosecutions if any criminal liability is found.

The Valais region’s top security official, Stéphane Ganzer, told SRF public radio that “such a huge accident with a fire in Switzerland means that something didn’t work — maybe the material, maybe the organization on the spot.” He added that “something didn’t work and someone made a mistake, I am sure of that.”

Nicolas Féraud, who heads the Crans-Montana municipality, told RTS radio he was “convinced” checks on the bar hadn’t been lax, the broadcaster reported.

___

Dazio reported from Berlin. Associated Press journalists Geir Moulson in Berlin and Sylvie Corbet in Paris contributed to this report.

Regina Fire & Protective Services said crews arrived to find flames coming from the home on Athol Street shortly after 3:30 p.m. on Thursday. One person was trapped inside, and firefighters had to remove them from the home.

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Paramedics treated the person at the scene before they were taken to hospital. There was no word on how badly the individual was hurt.

The fire department said a second home was also damaged in the blaze.

The cause of the fire is under investigation.

Gord Hewitt, Regina’s deputy fire chief, described the scene of the blaze.

“When they showed up, there was heavy fire and smoke coming from the one property. It had extended partially into the neighboring property, to the exposure on the south side,” he said.

“As they were doing their initial size up, they heard a noise from inside, made entry and found one occupant that they managed to rescue and pull out. They treated that occupant in the back alley, and they were eventually passed over to EMS for transport to the hospital.”

Hewitt said the fire caused “significant damage to the main fire property, as well as one of the exposure property,” but he noted that only the one person was hurt.

980 CJME asked Hewitt what kind of condition the person was in after the firefighters pulled them out of the burning home.

“I would say the injuries would be considered to be significant, but at the same time, without knowing the prognosis or the current state, that’s kind of all I can say right now,” the deputy fire chief explained.

An inspector has already determined the fire is not suspicious, but the exact cause is still under investigation.

The fire did not impact transit services, according to the city.

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Fire crews responded at 1:10 a.m. to the building on the 300 Block of Winnipeg Street.

“Fire crews identified that the fire alarm was set off by one bus, which was fully engulfed, and RFPS crews quickly extinguished the flames,” the city said in a statement.

That bus was “significantly damaged.”

Two adjacent buses sustained “minor damage.”

“The crews worked until 3:30 a.m. to clear smoke from the building,” the city said.

The building was unoccupied at the time of the fire, as it was outside of regular operating hours.

The city did not clarify which buses caught fire, if the buses would be replaced or if the building sustained any damage.

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