The Saskatchewan Public Safety Agency says there are three fires of note burning in the province right now. They continue to throw everything they’ve got at the Flanagan fire near Sandy Bay which forced the evacuation of the community a few weeks ago, that includes all levels of firefighters, air tankers, helicopters, heavy equipment support as well as an incident management team. The Flanagan fire is now 44,899 hectares in size and one of the other assets in the area, in addition to Sandy Bay, is SaskPower’s Island Falls Hydroelectric Power Station.

There are 66 fires burning in the province Friday with 10 of those not contained.  Two other fires the SPSA is closely monitoring include the Kraus fire east of Missinipe and Grandmother’s Bay. One of the assets in the area is the Seabee mine with many of the mine staff having been evacuated and fire crews are working to protect the mine site which includes a chainsaw crew punching in new helipad areas.

And on Wednesday Peter Ballantyne Cree Nation started evacuating the community of Southend because of the Merkley Fire which is now 30,506 hectares in size. There have been 541 fires to date this year and 350 is the five-year average.