No risks posed from recent spike in wildfire activity: province

Despite an uptick of wildfire activity in the province, Saskatchewan is still well below its five-year average of 394.

Currently, there are 46 active fires burning, seven of which are contained. There have been 211 wildfires this year.

According to a written statement from a spokesperson for the Ministry of Environment, none of the fires currently pose an immediate threat. The majority are burning near the Manitoba border around the Pelican Narrows area, and deep in the northeast corner of the province.

The wildfire hazards are low for most of the forested parts of the province, but south of Saskatoon hazards are high to extreme. Due to this extreme hazard, the ministry issued a ban on all open fires for provincial Crown land, provincial parks and recreation sites in southwest Saskatchewan on Aug. 1 that is still in place.

According to the ministry, the province is “ready to respond to Saskatchewan wildfires with our current resources.”

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“If we need to recall firefighting resources currently deployed to British Columbia and Montana to maintain preparedness in Saskatchewan, we can do so,” the spokesperson wrote via email.

The ministry said some staff have returned to the province from these deployments but resources continue to be sent to B.C. and Parks Canada, and they will assess future requests as they come in.

The province reminds people to check local weather and moisture conditions before planning a burn. Anyone planning to burn within 4.5 kilometres of the provincial forest must get a burn notification number, which can be obtained for free from a local Forest Protection Service.

tyler.marr@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: @JournoMarr