The number of wildfire evacuees fleeing from over 30 northern Saskatchewan communities continues to grow.
Saskatchewan Public Safety Agency Vice President of Operations Steve Roberts says over 9,000 registered evacuees have already left their homes, but that number continues to grow and could reach 15,000 in the near future. A large portion of them are from Pelican Narrows and the La Ronge area.
“Right now, we still believe we can support those evacuees in hotels throughout the province. I want to thank those cities and those hotel owners who are stepping up and working with us,” stated SPSA President Marlo Pritchard. However, there are arenas and centres opening their doors to evacuees, as well, such as the Cosmo Civic Centre in Saskatoon.
Roberts says on top of thousands fleeing their homes, over 400 structures have already been lost.
“The biggest increases we saw to the values that had been lost, is there were a number of values in La Ronge that were impacted from the Pisew Fire… but the biggest single bump there would be the significant structural loss in Denare Beach,” Roberts explained.
A large portion of Denare Beach was declared destroyed by the Wolf Fire as of Tuesday morning via a post on the Northern Village of Denare Beach Facebook page.
The agency is currently focused on the Shoe and Pisew fires, which are 407,000 and 83,630 hectares in size, respectively. The agency is also working to put out the 88,099-hectare Jaysmith fire, burning less than 20 km away from Brabant. The SPSA has resources at the 71,130 hectare Wolf fire, as well as the PELICAN2 fire burning Northeast of Pelican Narrows, the CLUB fire North of Creighton, and the Ditch02 fire north of Weyakwin.
Meanwhile, Candle Lake Council is declaring a state of emergency and asking residents to voluntarily evacuate the Resort Village as the 407,000-hectare Shoe Fire comes within 14 km of the community.
Premier Scott Moe says residents looking for accurate information regarding the state of current wildfires, phone the dedicated wildfire hotline toll-free at 1-855-559-5502.
NDP MLA for Cumberland, Jordan McPhail, was among the thousands to flee from La Ronge and nearby communities. McPhail says he’s hearing frustrated constituents say there is a lack of communication or a plan for evacuees who may be away from their communities for the foreseeable future. He calls on the Premier to listen to all Northern Chiefs about what their communities need.
There are currently 20 active wildfires in the province, 8 of which are contained.
