Saskatchewan too busy to help in Slave Lake fire

The Town of Slave Lake is in smoking ruins.

A raging wildfire swept through the Northern Alberta town destroying many important structures including the town hall, high school, library, hospital, radio station and many homes.

The town's population of more than 7,000 was ordered to evacuate on Sunday.

Fire crews from Ontario, British Columbia and Edmonton are helping fight the fire. Saskatchewan will not be lending a hand.

“We have 30 staff and some management team helping out with the floods in Southern Saskatchewan. With the fires we have burning at present, unfortunately we cannot assist Alberta,” said Scott Wasylenchuk, the provincial forest fire center manager.

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“When Alberta is hot and dry, we are also hot and dry so we have our own fire program and values to protect at this time,” he said.

There are 27 fires burning in the province right now, and 16 of them started Sunday.

“Most of them are small grass fires here and there. There are no major fires burning around the Prince Albert area,” said Wasylenchuk.

Environment Canada is forecasting hot, dry conditions for the next few days.

Wasylenchuck said it is a bad time to do any burning and he is asking people to be extra careful when camping or doing any industrial burning.

nmaxwell@panow.com