In their latest briefing, the Saskatchewan Public Safety Agency announced as of 11:00 a.m. Thursday, there are 56 active wildfires burning in the province, four are contained, with 15 not contained. As of this year at this time the province has had 392 wildfires, well above the 5-year average of 319. Seven communities are on full evacuation orders and another four P1s and P2s are evacuated. Those communities are Lac Laplonge, Beauval, Jans Bay, Little Amyot Lake, Patuanak, English River First Nation and Canoe Lake.
The SPSA said federal support was requested yesterday and they confirmed the federal government will be providing Saskatchewan with additional Type 3 crews to work on the wildfires as well as helicopters to support in the transportation of personnel.
President of SPSA Marlo Pritchard said that at this point in the wildfire season, they have an increased need for Type 3 fire fighters, which will allow for the repositioning of their Type 1 and Type 2 firefighters on more active wildfires. “A total of 300 personnel was requested, and we will be receiving those 300 by July 26th.”
In response to being asked about MLA Jordan McPhail’s criticism of it taking seven weeks to ask for federal help, Pritchard says it is really unfortunate and sad to see the divisive messaging going out with out-of-context or half-truths. “It really is about a situation that has now presented itself to safely deploy further Type 3s to fires that are having some less activity, allowing us to stabilize the containment of those fires and that is why the time is right to ask for federal assistance in this point in time.”
Steve Roberts is the Vice President of Operations for the SPSA and says year to date, the combined area impact in Saskatchewan is about 1.8 million hectares burned. “All of the active fire on the landscape right now is of course, not burning. Typically, it’s just the perimeters, so even though we have a lot of fires, it’s not all actively burning.”
The SPSA also acknowledged the support they have received from across Canada, the United States and internationally from Mexico and Australia. The province has received help with specialized aircraft, wildfire suppression equipment, type 1 and type 2 personnel from multiple mutual aid partners as well as volunteer fire departments and contractors.
