By Kellah Lavoie

Fire still threatens northern community, fire activity reduced

Jun 2, 2011 | 12:07 PM

There are only 15 people left in Wollaston Lake and the Hatchet Lake First Nation.

The evacuations wrapped up at about 6 a.m.

Those who remain in the community are there to keep things running and safe, said Duane McKay, provincial fire commissioner.

“The only people remaining in the community right now are those that will stay to maintain infrastructure, assist in fire operations and so on,” McKay said, explaining they are operating things such as water treatment and sewage. There are also RCMP in the community.

The fire has grown to 40 square kilometres, nearly the size of Moose Jaw.

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“The fire is literally on the edge of town. So, the edge of the farthest structure, for instance, there’s a road that cuts on the south part of town – we use that as an area where we’re managing the fire,” said Steve Roberts, executive director of the wildfire management branch with the Ministry of Environment.

They have fire lines up on the south edge of the community. They are holding the fire there – on the edge of the high school’s field.

Today they have also been extending that fire line towards the lake to help secure the perimeter.

Fire activity has reduced and Roberts said Friday’s weather should be a huge benefit. He said they are forecasting near freezing temperatures and precipitation.

While the fire hasn’t grown all day, he said it doesn’t mean they are in the clear.

“Most of the active fire component actually bypassed the town, went to the east while we were working that southern flank. So we do have flames, from perspective of our crews or even the people behind is the fire activity is much reduced today compared to yesterday, just strictly because of the weather conditions, so things are looking better from activity.

“I mean there is still a fire on the edge of town we have a fair bit of work to do to secure those lines,” he said explaining the threat is still high, but it has not grown since Wednesday.

McKay said the province has started their preliminary look at how they will be bringing people back into the community. He said the military will not be utilized and it could take anywhere from two to four days.

There is no timeline for when people will be able to head home.

The fire has been determined to be human caused, Roberts said, explaining all it means is that it was not started by lightning. It could be anything from electrical to someone with careless use of fire.

Fire investigators arrived this afternoon to start looking at the cause.

klavoie@panow.com