The Saskatchewan government is not quite ready to lift a provincial fire ban just yet.
According to the Saskatchewan Public Safety Agency, there were 30 active fires burning in the province on Thursday afternoon.
This includes three wildfires the province is battling in northern Saskatchewan.
These blazes are the Lock Fire burning near Dillon, the Stallard Fire near Stony Rapids and Pothole Fire in the vicinity of Stanley Mission.
The Stallard Fire is about 18 hectares in size, Pothole Fire 360 hectares and Lock Fire is by far the largest at roughly 5,190 hectares.
SPSA vice-president of operations Steve Roberts said although the three wildfires are currently uncontained, they do not anticipate any mass community evacuations at present.
“At this time, we have not initiated any evacuation alerts,” he said. “There were some voluntary folks who for medical reasons were evacuated by the community out of Dillon, just for air quality assurances because they were medical candidates. That is the only thing I am aware of at this time.”
Roberts also said a fire burning near Cameco’s Cigar Lake uranium mine site is not a threat at this time.
“That fire has been managed; the fire is secure. Fire did burn the majority of the perimeter around the mine site but no structures were damaged. The fire is still active but not in the vicinity of the mine site and the mine is free to continue operations as they see fit.”
Cameco did evacuate 230 non-essential workers from the site late last week who have since returned to work.
The fire ban covers all Crown lands including provincial parks.
Roberts said they anticipate the ban to remain in place until at least Monday.
(PHOTO: The Cloverdale Fire, shown here north of Prince Albert, was one of the uncontained wildfires the province was battling in May. File photo.)