About 80 per cent of the 259 wildfires in Saskatchewan this year were caused by humans. Most are termed as accidental, but the Saskatchewan Public Safety Agency (SPSA) has identified approximately 30 fires which it believes were started intentionally.

SPSA President Marlo Pritchard spoke during Wednesday afternoon’s media update.

Pritchard says the SPSA will review procedures to improve contact with wildfire evacuees in the future. There were complaints about the length of time required to receive financial assistance. After several days of public criticism, Premier Scott Moe announced on Wednesday that adult evacuees will receive $500 in assistance to be delivered through local municipalities or First Nations.  Pritchard says many of the complaints involved those who self-evacuated.

Fire crews have been able to make good progress since it rained last weekend and there are long range forecasts for additional precipitation this weekend.  None of the major fires have grown and suppression efforts are being focused on the fire perimeters. Bryan Chartrand with the SPSA says nearly 200 people are working on the Shoe Fire, which is the largest having destroyed 560,000 hectares or nearly 1.4 million acres of forest.

Chartrand explains how fire crews will tackle the larger wildfires in the coming days.

Thousands of people from the La Ronge region will start returning home on Thursday, which will greatly reduce the number of evacuees. SPSA officials hope to have an accurate estimate in a couple of days.