Provincial tankers parked at the Prince Albert Tanker Base. (Susan McNeil/paNOW)

By Susan McNeil

2025 wildfires

300 military personnel to arrive in Prince Albert for northern firefighting efforts

Jul 24, 2025 | 4:15 PM

Less than two hours after an SPSA briefing on the status of fires in Saskatchewan, an emergency alert warned people in Ramsey Bay to begin evacuating.

Right now, 1,800,000 hectares of Saskatchewan’s north are being burned or have been impacted by fires and with changing weather, they have decided to call in help from the Canadian military.

“It really is around the right resources at the right time,” said SPSA president, Marlo Pritchard. “We have seen a number of weeks ago the fire activities were ranked four or five and six, where we could not put individuals in the path of those flames.”

Thanks to cooler weather – albeit with very little rain – the provincial agency is now ready to focus more on some of the other work that is done by Type 3 firefighters but there are not enough to fill the need.

“We went to our First Nation partners as well to supplement our resources through their Type 3 trained individuals. We appear to have exhausted that list at this point in time,” said Pritchard.

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While they work with First Nations to get more Type 3 fighters, the Canadian armed forces have them, and that is who will be tasked to respond.

An advanced group arrived in Prince Albert on Thursday and are getting a scope of the mission and logistics of where to be deployed.

The request is for up to 300 Type 3 personnel, which will arrive in Prince Albert in the next 36 to 48 hours.

From here, they will be dispersed to the various fires burning across the north.

“They will be put on the line working with our staff in areas that are of low intensity, so we are able to move our Type 1 and Type 2,” said Pritchard.

Bringing in the extra firefighters also means they need more ways to move those people around so they are bringing in more air resources, such as helicopters.

This morning, there were 11 active evacuations, including Canoe Lake/Canoe Narrows, La Plonge reserve, Jans Bay, Beauval, Patuanak/English River and the Resort Subdivisions of Lac La Plonge and Little Amyot Lake. Now, Ramsey Bay subdivision and campground are included.

Type 1 and 2 people (elderly or with health conditions) have been evacuated from Île-à-la-Crosse, Montreal Lake, Cole Bay and Pinehouse.

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susan.mcneil@pattisonmedia.com

On BlueSky: @susanmcneil.bsky.social