Kinoosao. Photo courtesy of Jerry Clarke.
After a slow start to the fire season, crews from Saskatchewan Environment are being kept busy across the province’s north.
One blaze is burning about 15 kilometres from Fond du Lac, but is moving away from the community.
Executive Director of Wildfire Management, Steve Roberts, who is based in Prince Albert, says that fire is expected to produce significant smoke over the next couple of days.
Smoke from the Northwest Territories is also expected to move into the area over the next 48 hours. Another fire being worked on right now is on the east side of Reindeer Lake in the area of Kinoosao. Roberts says that blaze originated in Manitoba and led to an evacuation.
“It’s within about three kilometres of Kinoosao, so yesterday they did an evacuation request order for that community,” he said.
Crews from Manitoba are managing that fire.
Roberts says air tankers and crews are also working on the Flow fire on the Saskatchewan-Manitoba boundary.
The granite fire is located about 36 kilometres from Pelican Narrows, and the Wilkins fire is about 22 kilometres from Pelican Narrows. Roberts says those fires are expected to produce localized smoke.
The Ministry of Health has been working with those communities to deal with people who may have respiratory issues.