Montreal Lake and La Ronge are the hot spots in the intense battle against Saskatchewan’s wildfires. The threat to both communities has not changed much over the past 24 hours.
Two fires have now combined on the outskirts of La Ronge. The fire has gotten a little thicker, but it has not got any closer to town. The executive director of wildfire management, Steve Roberts says crews are managing to hold it back. He says they are dealing with a lot of territory.
“You take the entire area of the city of Saskatoon, it is five and a half times that size.” says Roberts. “ And that is just one single fire, immediately adjacent, within two kilometers of the community of La Ronge. So it gives you some perspective of the kind of fires we are trying to manage on the landscape here.”
About 100 kilometers to the south is the Montreal Lake Cree Nation. It has been hit hard, losing about 8 homes and two cabins. The chief of the reserve, Ed Henderson. in a facebook posting, says environment officials told him there was no threat to the community on June 26th, but two days later the entire community had to be evacuated and a number of structures have been lost. Roberts says environment officials work with the best information they have at the time. He says the fire situation is volatile and can change in an instant.
“In Montreal Lake we were working directly with the town leadership.” says Roberts. “ In the case of the Montreal Lake fire we had multiple fires that day, and in this case the fire became a problem, flared up and was not able to be contained.”
The fire destroyed a four plex, four homes, two cabins and a trailer in the community.
So far this fire season, 62 structures have been lost to fires, mostly cabins.
More than 13 thousand people have been forced from their homes and many want to go back to defend their properties.
The commissioner of emergency management, Duane McKay says it is impossible to keep everyone out but he warns there can be tragic consequences for those who fail to heed the warnings.
“Property can be replaced but lives can’t.” says McKay. “ The personal risk that people might want to place themselves in also causes significant risk to those who are fighting the fires.”
McKay says while the fires may burn all summer, efforts are being made to secure the communities at risk and reduce the threat enough to allow people back home as soon as possible.
There are currently 119 fires burning in the province and 20 are out of control. Nearly a thousand firefighters are engaged in the effort including about 500 soldiers from Edmonton. 500 additional soldiers have been trained in Shilo, Manitoba and are on standby in case they are needed.
More civilian firefighters are also being trained. There were 700 applicants from the Lac La Ronge Indian Band hours after the call went out earlier this week.