'200-foot wall of fire': Sask. cabin owners save property

One place where there is no miltary support is Nemeiben Lake, located 50 kilometres northwest of La Ronge.

Cabin owners like Bill Elliot are basically on their own to save their properties.

Wednesday was the worst day owners had in two weeks for cabin fires. One of Elliot’s friends almost lost his cabin.

“We saved it. There must have been a 200-foot wall of fire coming in there and those sprinklers just saved it. It’s crazy,” Elliot said, adding they are grateful for SERM, who have been boating gasoline in 45-gallon barrels to keep their sprinklers going.

‘If you don’t have sprinklers, you are done,” he said.

Elliot’s cabin is the only one on his island, a location which has helped save his property from the flames.

“We’re on our own, I think. They don’t even know we are here,” he said.

“We couldn’t get out if we wanted to. There’s just a wall of raging fire between us and La Ronge… It’s so smoky here you can’t even see. You’re running by GPS, it’s like you are in a fog.”

As a retiree, Elliot said he has a lot of time to deal with the flames, he’s just “running low on advil.”

Elliot doesn’t know if his vehicle is burnt out on the mainland.

“We’ll just stay here till it rains. I’m not going home,” he said, adding 90 per cent of the lake’s shoreline is gone.

bbosker@rawlco.com

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