Rain, cool weather helps with wildfires, fire ban lifted

The heat warnings are over and so is the fire ban for provincial parks and Crown land in Saskatchewan.

As of Monday at 11 a.m., the province rescinded the provincial fire ban.

Steve Roberts, vice-president of operations at the Saskatchewan Public Safety Agency, said it’s was thanks to the rain some areas got on the weekend and the cooler temperatures in the forecast.

“We have had the opportunity, because of favourable weather conditions, to downgrade the need for a fire ban in the northern part of the province so we have rescinded the fire ban, even though we still have fire workload in front of us.”

Roberts said the rain was very scattered and uneven, with some areas getting less than one millimetre, and some pockets getting more than 30 millimetres.

“The fire activity will be moderated generally, some significantly, but we will have lots of fire work in front of us still,” said Roberts.

Roberts said the system that brought the rain brought more than they had anticipated, but it also brought lightning. He said the crews working on the fires have been able to make progress on a number of them—the Fork Fire, which was threatening Beauval is now contained, and the White Fire, which was threatening Whelan Bay is now contained.

The 12 evacuees from Whelan Bay were set to head home later on Monday.

Roberts said those two fires had some heavy equipment on them.

“They weren’t the largest fires, but they were critical because of the values threatened,” said Roberts.

As of the update Monday morning, there were 161 wildfires active in Saskatchewan and 11 of them were threatening communities or highways.

To date, there have been 424 wildfires in Saskatchewan which is about double the five-year average and one of the highest counts in the last 10 years. Roberts compared the situation to 2015, saying there are a lot of fires this year, but they’re not as big as those from six years ago.

“We are fortunate that many of these fires are not very large … that has changed our strategy a little bit because we can spread the crews over on more fires and get more activity, more containment on a given day,” said Roberts.

According to Roberts, 150 local firefighters have been hired to work on the wildland fires. Some structural fire departments have been brought in to help with protecting communities, and community firefighting crews and public safety members from the wildland agency have also stepped in.

However, he said that doesn’t mean they won’t look for other fully trained firefighters from partners to help out.

“This break in the weather will give us opportunities to resource a number of these fires and get them contained, so we’ll take every advantage we can to do that while the weather cooperates,” said Roberts.

The change doesn’t mean that everyone in the province can light a campfire; municipalities can still prohibit fire.

You can see the latest list of those here.

As of late Monday morning, there were still 161 wildfires burning in Saskatchewan and only 15 were contained.