According to the latest wildfire update from the Saskatchewan Public Safety Agency (SPSA) today, there are currently 13 active wildfires in the province with five not contained. Repatriation efforts are being made, and Minister of Corrections, Policing and Public Safety Tim McLeod says they are working to identify all evacuees who qualify for financial support as quickly as possible.
Earlier Monday the Saskatchewan NDP claimed a new water bomber was delivered to the province but sat idle in La Ronge while the region had to be evacuated due to wildfire.
McLeod responded saying, “It’s unfortunate that even in a State of Emergency, they’re still wanting to politicize tragedy. This is not a situation where we had resources that were available that were being left on the tarmac. This government has made a significant investment to add four additional aircrafts to our fleet. The first of those planes arrived after we had already declared a State of Emergency and the pilots training to operate that plane had received all the simulator training, they could up to that point of time. To comply with Transport Canada regulations, they would train on that particular aircraft and the operational decision was not to remove those four pilots from active duty fighting fires, protecting our communities so they could train on the plane, but the decision was to continue to protect our communities and save lives.”
SPSA Vice President of Operations Steve Roberts says there has been enough reprieve from the weather over the weekend that as of 5 p.m. Monday, they are rescinding the fire ban. As of 5:30 a.m. Tuesday morning there are 13 wildfires burning in the province and three are not contained. There have been 256 to date and 156 is the five year average in the same time frame.
There are ongoing assessments of values lost, and Roberts says they can confirm over 350 structures and equipment of all kinds are destroyed from the wildfires, which includes homes, sheds, snowmobiles, ATVs, etc., and the number across the province is expected to exceed 500.
