Military works last shift as Sask. evacuees return home

The province is nearly finished helping northern Saskatchewan evacuees back home as the military gets set to do the same.

There are still evacuation orders in effect for Hall Lake and Clam Lake Bridge.  Approximately 2,862 evacuees are still getting social assistance.

They include:
Prince Albert- 1,194 (closing operations at Carlton High School)
North Battleford- 32
Saskatoon- 1,284 (closing SaskTel Sports Centre)
Regina- 352
All evacuees from Cold Lake are back home. 

Karri Kempf with Social Services expects there to only be a few dozen of evacuees by Wednesday. She said the Red Cross has been working on behalf of the provincial government, so the bill will go to the province.

Monday is the last day for the last 200 military members working to put out Saskatchewan wildfires. They will go home at the end of their shift. 

“We identified that we had critical communities threatened and we needed the military to address that. What it also means is that when those targets are achieved, that sets in motion the demobilization of that military because they’ve achieved their goals,” Steve Roberts with the Ministry of Environment said, adding the deployment went really well.

There are still 1,000 firefighters on the ground on Monday. The province has 78 out-of-province fire personnel and 60 more will be coming to help out.

There are 98 fires burning in the province on Monday, compared with 112 burning on Friday. There have been 646 fires this year compared with 235 at this time last year.

The fire crews have mixed feelings because they saved many communities but each structure is a disappointing loss, according to wildfire management.  There have been 99 structures lost since the start of fire season. No new structures burned since Sunday.

“They’ve got half a fire season in front of them as well,” Roberts said.

The rain has helped efforts but the massive Egg fire continues to burn 1,230 square kilometres after joining with the Bob fire.

Fire crews are hoping to secure the fire line of the Stowers fire, which is threatening Hall Lake and Clam Lake Bridge. They are also working on the Lynx fire.

“These fires are not out and they will flare up so people who are back in these communities have to understand as well that they will still see smoke. They may see flare ups on some of these bigger fires,” Roberts said.

Potash Corp and Kitsaki have launched a matching gift campaign to supply food for the evacuees returning home.

Each company is matching every dollar donated, up to $50,000 until July 31. Their goal is to provide 5,000 food hampers.

PotashCorp’s contribution is part of its previously announced $100,000 commitment to relief efforts. Donate here.

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