(Dre Erwin Photography)

By Nick Nielsen

Evacuees in Saskatoon, Prince Albert and Regina

Details on return to Sandy Bay, Southend still under evacuation orders

Sep 10, 2024 | 4:35 PM

It’s been a month long process for the residents of Sandy Bay, Saskatchewan to return home, but this morning the Peter Ballantye Cree Nation (PBCN) officially rescinded evacuation orders for the northeast village.

Already this morning, buses have been sent out to Saskatoon to pick up evacuees along with other communities along the way in a 17-hour bus trip to bring residents home.

In a virtual press conference with PBCN Emergency Management Coordinator Duane Hiebert Tuesday afternoon, he said he is in the community of Sandy Bay to help coordinate efforts with the Saskatchewan Public Safety Agency (SPSA). About 1,435 people have been waiting 30 days to go home and find out what state their homes may be in.

“Our community members are just ecstatic that they’re able to return home. There’s a lot of happy faces around the hotels while they were boarding the buses, and even though it’s a long, arduous trip back to the community of Sandy Bay, they will be extremely happy to arrive back in their homes and back in with familiar surroundings.”

(Dre Erwin Photography)

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While the fire that encroached on Sandy Bay is no longer an immediate threat, it is still active. The fire reached to within two and a half kilometers from Sandy Bay by the time they evacuated the community. But Hiebert said the fire has now distanced itself enough and suppression efforts have worked well enough that people returning to Sandy Bay can feel comfortable in their homes once again.

“Because of the change in in the wind direction, a little bit of moisture they had, the cooler temperatures, and with the equipment and manpower the SPSA put on the fire line, they were able to control that portion of the fire line that was closest to the community that did pose a direct threat. They’re still active firefighting on the Flanagan Fire by Sandy Bay.”

With the weather changes over the last three to four weeks, the Flanagan Fire has became much more controllable compared to when it started, but it likely won’t be fully extinguished until the first heavy snowfall. Because the nights are cooler now and the humidity level is staying above the active temperature for a long portion of the day, the fire is staying lower to the ground now, making it less likely to spread.

“Now the temperatures in the evening nights are relatively cool. It takes a long time for the fuel of the trees to heat up, and that crossover period of time is greatly reduced because it takes a long time for the fuel to heat up and for the moisture to burn off, so that opportunity for the fire to burn actively or up in the crowns of the trees is minimal,” Hiebert said.

Even if the fire was to double back towards Sandy Bay, the SPSA is confident with the amount of helicopters, tanker aircrafts, and other resources at their disposal that they will be able to control the fire.

While Sandy Bay is no longer threatened by the Flanagan Fire, the Merkley Fire is still close enough to the community of Southend that their 983 registered evacuees are still unable to return home. With their community members spread out between three different communities in the province, there is still no timeline on when the people of Southend will be able to return home.

“That fire is being assessed by SPSA and that is the Merkley Fire that caused the evacuation of Southend, those evacuees are in three different communities across the province Prince Albert, Saskatoon, and we have about 150 evacuees in the city of Regina, and we look forward to hopefully soon being able to provide good news for the community of Southend as well and that they will be able to return hopefully very, very soon,” Hiebert said.

For the school year, the evacuation orders came at an awkward time. Last week marked the first week of the school year for most schools around the province. With students in Sandy Bay displaced due to the fires, post secondary students based out of Sandy Bay were able to get started regardless of where they were, but the other students are going to have a bit of a different year.

“The high schools and elementary schools in Sandy Bay, I believe the teachers are back in place, but no students there. So they’re going to have to readjust their school year to begin when the students do arrive back in the community, so it’s been delayed. To the best of my knowledge, there has been no remote learning. We did hear from the school principal from the community of Southend and they did indicate the same thing that they’re rejigging their school year to accommodate the return of the students when Southend is repatriated.”

While the Flanagan Fire never got close enough to Sandy Bay to wreck any infrastructure, it’s believed three older cabins in the area were lost to the fire. While the community being saved is obviously a good thing, the loss of habitat for all kinds of wildlife and trees that have been there for decades is irreplaceable.

“This area is going to be scorched for years. Some of the trees are older than me and it’s hard to believe, but the trees you look at 80 to 160-year-old trees that were lost and it will take another lifetime for that forest to regenerate,” he said.

Further updates on the community of Southend are still to come. In Sandy Bay, their community services such as water treatment, sewage, and even grocery stores and gas stations should all be fully stocked and functional for the people returning home.

According to Hiebert, it took three days to evacuate everyone from Sandy Bay, but he’s hoping people will be able to return home sooner.