Premier Brad Wall spent some time at the nerve centre of forest fire control in the province this morning.
He took part in the daily operations update at the emergency centre in downtown Regina.
He has nothing but praise for the way things are being handled and how government departments, agencies and employees have responded to the biggest evacuation in the provinces history.
The emergency operations centre is a bee hive of activity.
Phones, charts, maps, computers, and lots of communication and strategy sessions.
The premier says it is a remarkable what gets done every day and how quickly people act and react to a situation that changes as quickly as the weather.
He says the forest fire crises is far from over, but it is being managed and it is improving
“You know there is room for cautious optimism,” He says, “ But we need to remember that anything can change very quickly and there are fires that are very close to a number of communities so we are going to be cautious and very diligent.”
The call for additional resources to help out on the fire lines never went out until late June.
At that time there were about 600 people on the fire lines, now there are more than 13 hundred.
The premier does not feel Saskatchewan waited too long to call for extra help. He says as the situation changed the province reacted.
“At some point because of the duration of the fires, the smoke perhaps inhibiting its prompt end, we just had to make the call that the firefighters there be replaced and some new ones brought in so we could gain the advantage back after being grounded for so many days.”
The premier also says he has instructed government ministers to assist local communities as people are allowed back home.
Some are heading back today but for thousands of others the wait continues.
There are currently 126 forest fires burning in the province, 26 of them are out of control, and three of them, including the one near La Ronge, are about 1000 square kilometers in size.