There was some good news in the provincial wildfire briefing provided by the Saskatchewan Public Safety Agency on Sunday. Bryan Chartrand Executive Director, Land Operations for the SPSA says 24 millimetres of rain was recorded in La Ronge which registered significant losses due to the “Pisew” fire.  There was 22 millimetres of rain which fell on the “Shoe” fire which is almost 500,000 hectares in size and is 11 kilometres from the Resort Village of Candle Lake.

Marlo Pritchard President and Fire Commissioner with the SPSA says all of the fires received rain on the weekend. He said, “We cannot slow down and we’re not going to slow down; this is a time when we can take advantage of a small window of opportunity.” He says they already have hired Type 3 firefighters and urge community leaders to start getting names of those qualified and trained so the SPSA can quickly access those trained firefighters.

There are 24 active wildfires in the province and six are not contained. There have been 255 wildfires to date compared to 174 in the same time frame last year. Pritchard says they anticipate 400 values lost and have confirmed 290. That can include homes, trailers boats, cabins, and lodges.  The SPSA says the “Club”, “Wolf”, and “Pelican2” fires have merged.

Evacuees are estimated between 10 and 15 thousand. The Lac La Ronge Indian Band on their social media says the Red Cross is running buses for evacuees in Regina, there is free public transportation in Prince Albert and in Saskatoon transport arrangements are underway.