About a hundred fires are still burning in the province’s north, but the crisis is over. Communities are now assessing, reviewing and reorganizing as thousands of residents return home.
This was a huge challenge involving hundreds of firefighters, including soldiers, dozens of communities and thousands of evacuees. Over the weekend, there was a mass move of evacuees.
People were sleeping in their own beds again after days or even weeks away. Just under 3,000 people are still registered with emergency Social Services, but that number will drop to a few dozen by Wednesday.
The deputy commissioner of emergency management, Colin King, says operations are now being wound down.
“So we are almost, but not quite, over for this portion of the operation,” he says. “Because our provincial firefighters will continue in their tough role even after most of the people are back home.”
The executive director of Wildfire Management, Steve Roberts, says while the crisis is over, fires are still burning and there is still a threat.
“There are still fires on the landscape. There has still been some losses of cabins and structures,” he says. “Our firefighters take that personally. They don’t want to see a single home or a single cabin burned.”
The military is heading out. Roughly 200 troops have already left. The rest will go tomorrow. In all, nearly 900 soldiers were part of the firefighting effort. Many of them were on the front lines protecting La Ronge from a fire that came within a kilometre or two of the community.
La Ronge Mayor Thomas Sierzycki says there were times when it looked like crews may not be able to hold it back.
“There was a few days when I was definitely lost for words,” he says. “It was very difficult and it was very emotional. And I could look around the table and I knew individuals who were very professional and had a lot of knowledge and they had that same look on their face. However, we were able to get through the first few days which were the most difficult ones.”
The mayor says there will be a review of how emergency management was handled in the community.
Sierzycki says it was his most trying time as mayor, but he credits his support team with giving him all the information and guidance he needed.
“There will be things to learn from,” he says. “There will be people upset with decisions that were made, and that’s normal process for any time something like this happens. I just have a new found further respect for the La Ronge area and the leadership of different communities — such as the Lac La Ronge Indian Band, as well as the village of Air Ronge and Northern Municipal Services. I’m just proud to be from northern Saskatchewan.”
Sierzycki also expresses his gratitude to the firefighters and soldiers who held their ground and prevented a huge fire from burning its way through the community.
Meanwhile, the chief of the Lac La Ronge Indian Band is promising a strategy meeting to talk about what went right and what went wrong during the fire situation and evacuations.
Hall Lake, for instance, has been evacuated on four separate occasions since June 6. At last word, it was one of the few communities where an evacuation order was still in effect.
Meanwhile, Chief Tammy Cook-Searson says about a thousand people from other communities are due to return home today on buses.
“We have another 20 buses that are coming home today,” she says. “So those are the health priority people that weren’t able to return home. But we met with health officials and they’ve given us the go ahead to bring people home. We haven’t had any smoke here for three days.”
She is also proud that over a thousand people submitted applications when a call went out to northerners for emergency firefighting training.
At last count, about 100 structures were destroyed by flames this fire season — mostly cabins. A more accurate assessment will be made over the next few days.
Meantime, about a thousand firefighters are still battling about 100 fires in the province in what will likely be the worst forest fire season on record.