Sask. encouraging residents to come forward with information regarding intentionally set wildfires

An orange-coloured haze, resulting from a nearby wildfire, is seen on a helipad in La Ronge, Sask., in an undated handout photo. THE CANADIAN PRESS/HO-Saskatchewan Public Safety Agency, *MANDATORY CREDIT*

Saskatchewan Public Safety Agency (SPSA) president Marlo Pritchard says investigators have determined that 80 wildfires in the province this year were started by humans, with approximately 30 of those set intentionally.

Pritchard says the SPSA and police are asking for the public’s assistance to help identify individuals that have intentionally set wildfires.

“Of those [intentionally set fires] we have had four in the Prince Albert area in the past number of days and so again we would ask members of the public to call your local police service or Crime Stoppers,” he said.

RCMP have already laid two arson charges, connected to incidents near Prince Albert. SPSA officials and Premier Moe have repeatedly said that the Ditch02 fire in the Weyakwin area was intentionally set.

Pritchard says the SPSA can confirm 290 structures have been lost to the fires, with the possibility of that number climbing to 400 once more investigations are done.

The SPSA also revised its provincial fire ban on Tuesday at 5 p.m. According to Pritchard, the provincial ban now only applies to the Northern Provincial Forest up to the Churchill River.

Minimal to no fire growth

Favourable weather conditions including rainfall has allowed firefighters to more directly attack flames over the past few days. That is also allowing some evacuees to return home.

“We are turning a corner, we are seeing that the fire activity has been relatively stable over the past few days. There has not been any significant growth and we’ve also seen and been informed that there is numerous communities either preparing for or have repatriated back to their communities,” Pritchard said.

According to Pritchard, Birch Portage evacuees returned home June 9 and Little Bear Lake, Moosehorn and Timber Bay evacuees are returning home on Wednesday.

Meanwhile, residents of Hall Lake, Brabant Lake, Nemeiben Lake, Sucker River, Wadin Bay, English Bay, Sikachu, Clam Crossing, Lac la Ronge Indian Band, La Ronge, Air Ronge, Napatak, Eagle Point, Lamp Lake, Rabbit Creek, Potato Lake and priority one and two individuals in Stanley Mission are all expected to return home in the next day or so, according to Pritchard.

“As the repatriation efforts continue, we will work with community leaders to support those that are being supported by SPSA to safely return to their communities in the coming days,” he said.

Pritchard says as of Wednesday, there is still approximately 10,000 or more people still evacuated.

The SPSA says there are 23 active wildfires in Saskatchewan on Wednesday. Six are listed as not contained and two with fire crews protecting values and property.

The Shoe fire remains the largest in the province at approximately 550,000 hectares, according to the SPSA.

The fire is one of the six still considered not contained but the SPSA says it has not significantly grown over the past few days.

Crews remain focused on finding hot spots within the fire’s perimeter and continuing to be stationed on the fire’s west end to protect nearby communities.

The Pisew fire near La Ronge has also not significantly grown since the area received about 22 millimetres of rain over the weekend. That is allowing about 7,000 evacuees to return home in the coming days. According to the SPSA the Pisew fire is at 181,000 hectares on Wednesday.

More information can be found here.