The Vice President of Operations for the Saskatchewan Public Safety Agency is hoping to bring in firefighters from across the province and from other provinces to help fight the growing number of wildfires in northern Saskatchewan. Steve Roberts says provincial crews and local firefighters have been working at full capacity for a few weeks now and they need a break. That’s why the SPSA is reaching out to local, provincial and national partners to see if some firefighters from elsewhere can help.

There are now 127 wildfires burning in the province, with 360 in total for the year, which is 152 above the five year average. Roberts says with the hot, dry weather, more fires are expected in the future and any small amount of rain usually includes lightning, which means again, more wildfires. The fires of concern are the Lock fire near Dillon, St. George’s Hill and Michel Village, fire GMB01 near Grandmother’s Bay, the Mule and Lynx fires close to Stanley Mission, and the Stallard fir near Black Lake and Stony Rapids.

The SPSA doesn’t have an exact number of how many people have had to evacuate because of the wildfires and the smoke. Director of Emergency and Crisis Support, Joan Hrcyck says they have worked with the Meadow Lake Tribal Council to assist 48 evacuees in North Battleford from the Lock fire. Some community members have evacuated to Lloydminster, but Meadow Lake Tribal Council is in charge of that, so they don’t have those numbers, and the Peter Ballantyne Cree Nation is coordinating the evacuations from Southend.