By Stephanie Froese

Lightning heats up Northern Saskatchewan

Jun 13, 2011 | 1:23 PM

The road is open, but the 450 people evacuated from Hall Lake don’t yet know when they will be able to go home.

Sunday, lightning struck a dry patch near the community north of Prince Albert National Park.
Smoke and a rapidly growing fire about five kilometers from the community led to a complete evacuation.

The fire is about 20 hectares in size, just slightly smaller than Cook Municipal Golf Course.

The road that connects the community to the La Ronge Highway was closed when the fire started, but it has reopened, said Steve Roberts, executive director of fire management and forest protection for the Ministry of Environment.

The forecast for this afternoon is calling for sunshine with a chance of thunderstorms which could mean more fire starts.

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“Right now the fire is low behavior because the crews were able to hold it from moving. We will work on getting a perimeter secured around that fire as soon as we can today. Hopefully before things heat up this afternoon,” Roberts said.

The community was evacuated to La Ronge where a shelter has been set up at the Jonas Roberts Memorial Community Centre.

Linda Korney, ministry planning officer for the Ministry of Social Services, said the Red Cross brought in some cots from Prince Albert.

“Approximately 54 people stayed in the shelter last night. Others stayed with friends and family or had other accommodations,” Korney said.

“The community has been very involved in providing support in the shelter and during the evacuation. Things are going very well and are quite quiet in the shelter.”

This is the second complete evacuation of a Northern Saskatchewan community due to fire this month.

The last one moved more than 1,000 people form Wollaston Lake and Hatchet Lake First Nation to Prince Albert and Saskatoon.

A fire is causing a slow evacuation near Ducharme Lake, where a fire covering an area nearly twice the size of Saskatoon has caused nine people to be evacuated Friday, because of smoke concerns.

The fire is about 10 kilometres away from the community.

While the size of the fire is significant, Roberts said no other communities are at risk because there aren’t many people living in that area of the province.

Roberts said high hazards across the province along with extensive lightning have resulted in 16 new fire starts since yesterday alone. He said most of them were handled with their initial attacks and are not causing any concern.

The fire at Wollaston Lake continues to be stable in size and there have been no significant changes.

sfroese@panow.com