Fate of Creighton hinges on shifting winds as wildfire threat grows
Hot, dry forecast spells trouble for Sask. wildfires
The Town of Creighton's fate hangs in the wind.
The small northeastern community is just across the border from Flin Flon, Man., with a huge wildfire threatening both communities.
Winds are expected to pick up and change direction Friday night, pushing the fire directly toward both towns.
"With a big change in wind we are going to be patrolling the edge [of town] with tankers and fire trucks and hoses and things like that to hopefully stop any embers or anything flying into the community and start up," said Mayor Bruce Fidler, who remains in Creighton.
He said only firefighters and public works crew are still in town as the rest of the residents have been evacuated.
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The mayor said there is only one escape route for those few people who remain: Highway 106 toward La Ronge.
Firefighters are working on that edge of the fire in a bid to keep the highway open, but Fidler says that might not be enough.
"If we can get the retardant planes in here to put kind of a [fire] break in, hopefully to stop where we think it might cross the highway.
"It's extremely worrying," Fiddler said. "That's why we've got 99 per cent of our people out of town, because it could move in very fast."
Hot, dry forecast spells trouble
A meteorologist is warning the upcoming weather forecast isn't good news for the wildfire outlook in northern Saskatchewan, with hot, dry and windy conditions in the foreseeable future.
"We're not getting any relief, unfortunately," said Justin Shelly, a meteorologist with Environment and Climate Change Canada. "We're expecting very warm conditions to continue."
A cold front will develop from Alberta that will move to Saskatchewan on Friday, but it will only create some isolated chances of showers and thunderstorms, said Shelly.
"There's not going to be a lot of accumulations in terms of rainfall amounts associated with this," he said.
Shelly said another system from Alberta will be coming Saturday night into Sunday morning, but most of the rainfall will hit isolated spots of northern Saskatchewan, with only about five to 15 millimetres in those areas.
Ideal weather conditions to help with the wildfires would include multiple days of persistent rain and cooler temperatures without any significant gusty winds, he said.
"Unfortunately, it doesn't look like we're going to see anything like that come up here in the next week or 10 days."
Public Safety update
The weather remains the biggest obstacle to getting wildfires under control. Strong winds keep pushing fires closer to some communities, according to the Saskatchewan Public Safety Agency (SPSA).
"The fires are continuing to move significant distances, although we have seen some stability over the past 24 hours as the wind dropped off," said SPSA president Marlo Pritchard during Friday's wildfire update.
The Shoe Fire near Candle Lake in the Narrow Hills Provincial Park region had grown to 305,343 hectares as of 11 a.m. CST Friday, said SPSA vice-president of operations Steve Roberts.
Roberts added that wildfires have burned more than 500,000 hectares of land in Saskatchewan so far this year.
As conditions continue to evolve, a wildfire alert and evacuation order was issued Friday evening for the Ramsey Bay Subdivision.
Northern Municipal Services says a fast-moving wildfire is now threatening access to and from the community and residents have been instructed to evacuate immediately and proceed to the gravel pit south of the subdivision, where they will be escorted through heavy smoke to Highway 2.
People are also being urged to take their pets with them.
Roberts thanked volunteers and communities for supporting the fire crews working long hours in difficult conditions.
"It's been four straight weeks and our crews are tired," Roberts said. "There will be [property] losses, there will be setbacks, but it is not due to lack of effort by the firefighters on the line."
Candle Lake prepares
Marg Currie has her bags packed so she can leave her Candle Lake home as soon as an evacuation order is issued.
"There's a great deal of anxiety but it really does make you evaluate what's important too," Currie said during an interview at her home in the resort village.
"I'm very happy [the province] declared a state of emergency, because I think that's an important step in making everyone aware of how serious this situation is."
Candle Lake remains under a voluntary evacuation order as the nearby Shoe fire creeps closer. It's currently the largest wildfire in Saskatchewan.
Currie and her husband started visiting Candle Lake in the 1960s, but are now permanent residents. On Friday, they were visited by members of the pre-evacuation alert committee, a group of local volunteers going door-to-door to help residents.
"I am really grateful for the people on the front lines," Currie said.
Seasonal residents Deb and Ron Flack are two of those volunteers helping neighbours prepare to flee.
"I did run into some people who did not know there was a fire," Deb said. "They don't listen to the news and they don't do Facebook, which is realistic. So we need to let those people know there is a concern so nobody is left in the village."
'We're very fortunate': cabin owner
With wildfires continuing to rampage, Regina resident Trevor Phenix went north this week to save his cabin.
Phenix, who owns a family cabin near Besnard Lake, about 560 kilometres north of Regina, already lost the cabin once in 2015 to wildfires and had to rebuild it. He said he had been watching the fire's progress for days and made the call to head up to the area Monday morning.
"I got a call from my cousin asking if I'd seen the fire map," he said. "I looked at it and it was pretty apparent that the fire was either already at the cabin or was going to be there pretty quickly."
Phenix went up to the cabin with a plan to test and set up more sprinklers and fire pumps.
On Tuesday morning, he saw a fire within about 75 metres of the cabin. Phenix said he hustled to make sure the sprinklers were working, and by the time he got to the top of the cabin, the fire had reached its base.
Phenix was able to save the cabin with the help of a friend after dousing the area with water.
"We're very fortunate, very lucky."
Meanwhile in Weyakwin, Gord Beatty had to use a garden hose to save his house from a wildfire that came roaring into his yard. It was a far cry from the equipment he used as a firefighter for more than 20 years, but it worked.
Beatty made sure his home was safe and complied with the mandatory evacuation, leaving at 1 a.m. Thursday morning.
"I know when to run," he told CBC.
Red Cross assisting evacuees
The Canadian Red Cross is assisting with evacuee registration and providing meals and emergency accommodations for Saskatchewan residents fleeing wildfires.
"It's been hard to find places for people with so many people evacuating [communities] all at one," said Luc Mullinder, Canadian Red Cross vice-president for Saskatchewan, Manitoba and Nunavut, in an CBC News Network interview.
"We're working with a number of organizations that are trying to help people from Saskatchewan and Manitoba. In a really bad situation it has been refreshing to hear from all of the organizations reaching out."
Evacuees can also register with the Canadian Red Cross on its website, which also has information for people looking to donate to a relief fund established specifically for Saskatchewan and Manitoba evacuees.
Wildfire damaging infrastructure
SaskTel said in a news release Wednesday a wildfire near McLennan Lake, northeast of La Ronge, had damaged fibre infrastructure, causing major network congestion in northern Saskatchewan.
Internet, wireless and landline phone services have been disrupted in several communities, including Southend, Wollaston Lake, Stony Rapids and Fond du Lac, the Crown telecomms corporation said.
Crews are currently unable to access the area and begin repairs due to the fire threat, SaskTel said.
"Customers in the impacted areas may experience slower than usual data services, dropped phone calls, and discontinued data sessions," it said.
ATVs banned in Sask. forests
The provincial fire ban now includes the use of the all-terrain vehicles (ATV) and utility-terrain vehicles (UTV) in designated areas, according to the SPSA.
ATVs and UTVs are banned on vacant Crown land and in the provincial forest, which includes provincial parks and the Northern Saskatchewan Administrative District, the SPSA said.
The fire ban already prohibits open fires, controlled burns and fireworks in those same areas.
The provincial fire ban does not include the entire province. Currently, it's up to municipalities and rural municipalities to implement local fire bans.
Up-to-date info on active fires, smoke and related topics is available at these sources:
Corrections
- This article contained some incorrect information about when and with whom Trevor Phenix headed up north to his cabin. That has now been corrected.May 30, 2025 12:44 PM EDT
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With files from Jeremy Warren, Scott Larson and the CBC's Morning Edition