As of Wednesday morning, there are 14 active wildfires, there have been 186 to date and the five year average is 128. Six of the fires are not contained. With a dry, hot week in the forecast, fire bans extending from the Churchill River system, south to the US border, remain in place in Saskatchewan.
The Rally Fire west of Prince Albert is considered contained, at over 25 hundred hectares, but is being watched closely while the Tuff Fire at Meadow Lake Provincial Park has now grown to 6,528 hectares.
Steve Roberts with Ministry of Environment says it is not yet contained. He says they have over 250 personnel, 17 pieces of heavy equipment and 9 helicopters all supported by air tankers, fighting the Tuff Fire.
There were 13 cabins at Flotten Lake, which were protected by sprinkler units and were encroached by the Tuff Fire, consequently those, as well as a number of out-buildings, burned down. Early in the Tuff Fire a bulldozer was also burned and two outbuildings were burned in the Rally Fire.
35 people remain out of their homes, all being housed in a hotel in Saskatoon, where they will remain until air quality conditions are no longer an issue.