Southern Saskatchewan under extreme fire risk

The province is set to announce stricter rules for carbon monoxide detectors in multi-family buildings after a fatal leak in December. Wayne Mantyka reports.

A swath of southern Saskatchewan is facing dry and windy conditions, creating the perfect recipe for a tinder box.

The fire department in Kenaston was busy over the weekend, responding to a handful of fires in a 48-hour span.

Kenaston Fire Chief Brad Owen said the current dry conditions are making it easy for even a small fire to grow large very quickly.

“We’ve had some warm days and driving winds, so, yeah, once a fire starts it very quickly and easily spreads through that top surface, dry layer and it can really take off quick,” he noted.

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The Saskatchewan Public Safety Agency’s Fire Weather Index is currently painted red and yellow when it comes to the southern part of the province, with much of the lower half of Saskatchewan at high to extreme risk of fires.

That includes Melville, where Fire Chief Aaron Buckingham says the city recently had to put out a large blaze.

“We had a fairly substantial grass fire on Friday last week, and it was traveling at a speed that wasn’t terribly bad, bad enough, fueled by the winds. But a week from now, if we get no rain, that fire would have been much, much worse,” he explained.

The dry conditions have caused first nations like Muscowpetung Saulteaux Nation and Cowessess First Nation to enact fire bans in their respective communities.

Kenaston and Melville are not currently under any fire bans.

But if no moisture comes within the next week or so, the communities will consider putting some sort of a ban in place.

“We may put a full fire ban, meaning no, no incinerators, no burning barrels, that kind of stuff,” Buckingham said. “Which is more of a rural thing than a city thing of course, because most cities have prohibiting factors around doing any kind of burning like that in their cities.”

The fire chief added that some parts of southern Saskatchewan have received pockets of moisture over the past few days, which will help the overall situation slightly.

However, the ideal conditions in the eyes of any firefighter would be a wet spring followed by some immediate heat leading into summer.