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On Saturday a mandatory evacuation was ordered for the Lac La Ronge area with 1,136 people being taken out of town and several thousand evacuating on their own.
In the wake of these recent fires and evacuations, the province has put in a request to receive assistance and additional personnel from the military and has called for greater federal commitment.
This comes after the declaration of a state of emergency in northern Saskatchewan.
In a statement from Duane McKay, executive director from emergency management and fire safety, the military will is sending survey teams in the next 12 to 24 hours with the deployment of 1,000 personnel happening shortly after.
Water bombers are still being kept on the ground due to the smoke. Over 660 firefighters are on the ground with 64 supporting aircraft, which will fly out of Prince Albert, Meadow Lake and La Ronge when smoke clears up. Firefighters are coming from all over the province, with more than 40 fire departments on standby.
After arriving in Prince Albert, 500 hundred evacuees are being sent to Cold Lake, Alta. Several more evacuees could be sent to Alberta.
Chief Tammy Cook Searson is one of the few people still in La Ronge.
But despite the current threat, Cook-Searson said their main priority has been taken care of.
“It’s nice to know that the majority of people are out of the community because that’s always the biggest thing, making sure that our people are safe,” she said.
The evacuation came after fires crossed a failsafe line 10 kilometres north of the town. Recent reports are saying that the fires are now five kilometres away.
“We have had heavy helicopters on the fire all yesterday afternoon and first thing [Sunday morning],” said Steve Roberts, executive director of wildfire management.
“Right now the winds are not in our favour because the fire is at the north end of the airport and the winds are south which means it’s going to push the fire this way, into the community,” said Cook-Searson.
Wildfire burns near La Ronge airport. @PAFirefighters/Twitter
Not including recent evacuees from La Ronge, 5,698 displaced people are receiving assistance across the province from the Red Cross.
As of Sunday there are 385 evacuees in North Battleford, 2,293 Prince Albert, 1,799 in Saskatoon, and 1,221 in Regina. This does not include evacuees from La Ronge area.
These displaced people come from over 50 communities in the north which have been partially to fully evacuated.
There are currently 110 fires in the province with12 new ones since Saturday, and six man-made fires in Hall Lake.
We’ve already seen more than 10 times the annual average for land burnt by the fires in the province. In the past five years we averaged 33,000 hectares
With files from Alex Soloducha from paNOW
ASalloum@rawlco.com
Follow on Twitter: @AlecJSalloum
The #CAF is preparing to send up to 1400 personnel, to help in response to #wildfires in #Sask http://t.co/QgGH7sHlZ9 pic.twitter.com/4QC8PyCRse
— Canadian Forces (@CanadianForces) July 6, 2015
Advance party IRU (West) on the road to Prince Albert for #OpLENTUS 15-02 #skfire support @CFOperations pic.twitter.com/bbd78lMqSe
— 3rdCanadianDivision (@3CdnDiv) July 6, 2015
