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Island Falls power station expected to stay operational despite encroaching wildfire
With the edge of a wildfire within five kilometres of the Island Falls Hydroelectric Power Station, residents in the area of Sandy Bay and towards the Manitoba border will not have to worry about losing their electricity long term. Right now the power station is operating with only their essential staff, but it is not expected at the moment for the power station to shut down entirely.
The fire has spread over 391 hectares of space around the Lake Flanagan area. SaskPower Spokesperson Scott McGregor said that they are closely monitoring the situation with the Saskatchewan Public Safety Association (SPSA) if they will need to evacuate the rest of their employees keeping the station running, but that isn’t a concern for them at this time.
“It’s very, very unlikely that any operations at Island Falls will be impacted and the plan is to keep operating Island Falls normally. We’ve been running fire suppression sprinklers at the plant since last week, which has been just saturating the surrounding area and the rooftops of the buildings. It’s quite wet around the facility itself.”
One of the reasons SaskPower is expecting the Island Falls station to stay operational despite the nearby fire is because of its location. Island Falls is a Hydroelectric plant that is located on the water of the Churchill River and is surrounded by water on the north and west sides, so even if the fire continues to close in they should be ready for it.