Civilians are being trained to pick up where the military leaves off.
Plans are already in the works to replace hundreds of soldiers on the front lines of Saskatchewan’s forest fires with civilians. A call went out yesterday for paid volunteers and by the end of the day hundreds had applied.
The commissioner of emergency management, Duane McKay, says 600 applicants — mainly from the Lac La Ronge Indian Band — have applied. He says that list is now being processed.
“So we are compiling all of that very rapidly,” he says. “To make sure we can verify all the training standards and to look at a training plan that will allow us to train these people as quickly as possible.”
McKay says he hopes to have them trained and ready to join the fire lines within the next 10 to 14 days. Meanwhile, crews are expected to be busier today. The temperature has increased and northwest winds have picked up gusting to 40 km/h. The executive director of Wildfire Management, Steve Roberts, says that will result in volatile conditions.
“They will have a busy day,” he says. “They are looking at warmer, drier conditions and we will see some wind shifts. These fires are large enough that any wind shifts are something we have to anticipate and work around because of potential flare ups.”
Last weekend, about a dozen structures — including a fourplex in Montreal Lake — were destroyed by flames in the La Ronge area. There are currently 118 fires burning in the province’s north, 20 of them are out of control.
Three of the fires are more than 1,000 square kilometres in size. The one near La Ronge is just under 1,000 square kilometres. So far this year, there have been 601 fires — nearly three times what it was last year at the same time.
Canada’s public safety minister says the government will continue to offer military support to northern Saskatchewan as long as it is needed.
While speaking to reporters in Prince Albert on Thursday, Minister Steven Blaney said the government is ready to assist in the evolving needs of the north.
He said they are also monitoring the forest fire situations in Alberta and BC and have troops ready to be deployed there if needed.
As to where the military presence will be stationed in the north for the time being, Blaney said that is up to the province.