The situation escalated rapidly in Saskatchewan Monday night after a wildfire, fed by wind gusts to 80 kilometres an hour, breached the La Ronge airport forcing the evacuation of La Ronge, Air Ronge, Lac La Ronge Indian Band, Eagle Point, Lamp Lake, Rabbit Creek, Sucker River, Nemeiben, English Bay, Potato Lake and Wadin Bay.
Chief Tammy Cook-Searson of Lac La Ronge Indian Band instructed residents on social media to take Highway #2 and go south if people could self-evacuate. Posts on Facebook indicated some people were turning around on the highway worried they were going be trapped on the highway by the wildfire. However, a notice from the leadership of Air Ronge, Lac La Ronge, the Lac La Ronge Indian Band and Tri-Community Operations Centre instructed evacuees to keep heading south on Highway 2 and watch for pilot vehicles.
Chief Cook-Searson also posted that evacuees could go to the Prince Albert Grand Council Urban Services Centre. It is right beside the Gateway Mall in Prince Albert. The Red Cross would also be present to help evacuees register.
Due to the current fire situation and evacuation order for La Ronge and Area, all MBC Radio staff were evacuated and were moving to Prince Albert last night. In a post on Facebook they said they had set up a sprinkler system in an effort to protect MBC’s Satellite Broadcast equipment to keep them on air and would stay on air as long as possible.
Buckland Fire and Rescue in the RM of Buckland have redeployed their water tanker from Weyakwin to La Ronge. They responded to Weyakwin after a Critical Alert was issued last Wednesday night for immediate evacuation in the face of a fast-moving wildfire there. The fire in the La Ronge area has grown to more than 200-thousand acres. The “Shoe” fire now 14 kilometres from the Resort Village of Candle Lake is about 18 times the size of Saskatoon.
Meanwhile the Village of Denare Beach posted on social media around 5 p.m. Monday that all remaining essential staff, volunteer fire departments and additional help had evacuated due to intense wind conditions and the growth of the “Wolf” fire.
The number of evacuees in Saskatoon doubled between Friday night and Monday morning. The Saskatoon Community Foundation and the United Way are taking monetary donations. The funds are being distributed quickly to the entities providing hands on help to evacuees.
Wildfires have created a service outage impacting SaskTel Internet, Wireless, and Landline (Home Phone and Business Phone) services in communities and areas directly North and Northeast of La Ronge, including La Ronge. Communities and areas Northwest of La Ronge are not affected. The communities of Creighton, Deschambault Lake, Pelican Narrows, and Jan Lake are also experiencing an outage impacting SaskTel Internet, Wireless, and Landline (Home Phone and Business Phone) services. There is no estimated time of repair for these communities at this time.
As of 5:00 a.m. Tuesday there are 20 wildfires burning in the province and nine are not contained. There have been 229 wildfires so far this year in Saskatchewan and there were 172 at the same time last year. The five year average is 132.
