By Glenn Hicks

Smoky conditions await returning Pelican Narrows residents

Sep 14, 2017 | 1:02 PM

With the bulk of the evacuee repatriations to Pelican Narrows expected Thursday, smoke remains an issue. 

The two week-long Evacuation Order was rescinded Wednesday with crews making progress on the ground amid improving weather conditions.

But Commissioner of Fire Safety Duane McKay said in a media call Thursday that while the higher humidity is good, that causes other issues.

“Even though this is good for firefighting it will cause a bit of an inversion so we expect that smoke will still be fairly dense in that area,” McKay said.

Air purifiers have been deployed in various locations including community centres and schools. School is expected to start Monday in Pelican Narrows.

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The Peter Ballantyne Cree Nation rescinded the evacuation order based on various factors which included the air quality being “within acceptable limits”. But not for all residents.

Officials weren’t immediately sure how many would remain in Prince Albert and Saskatoon in the short term due to health reasons or because they have kids under two years old. A total of 2,700 people registered as evacuees during the wildfires. Around 2,000 were in P.A. earlier this week.

Roughly 40 vehicles made the escorted trip on the highway Wednesday evening but most people were expected to return home by bus Thursday.

Smaller communities not out of the woods yet

Not everyone affected by the wildfires in the Pelican Narrows area are cleared to return home.

The smaller communities of Jan Lake, Birch Portage and Tyrell Lake remain evacuated.

Scott Wasylenchuk with Wildfire Management says there is still a lot of fire activity.

“There’s a lot of heavy fuel accumulations that are smoking up pretty heavy and a lot of fire in and around those locations, so we’re trying to secure that,” he said. ”There’s still a direct threat and we’ve got a lot of people and equipment in there.”

Wasylenchuk said they were repositioning their 300-plus personnel away from some areas and into places of “higher concern.”

Officials have described the latest activity of the three blazes burning in the region as “stable.”
 

Glenn.Hicks@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: princealbertnow