By Sarah Wallace

Stanley Mission’s fire among most serious of 62 fires in seven days

May 22, 2014 | 5:17 PM

According to the Provincial Fire Center Manager there are currently 12 fires burning in the province, with seven of those fires not yet contained.

On Thursday afternoon, Scott Wasylenchuk said in the last 24 hours crews have put out nine fires, but nine new fires have started in their place.

“To date there have been 115 fires and 62 of those have occurred in the last seven days,” Wasylenchuk said. 

“With the Stanley Mission fires, the Lagoon Fire is adjacent to the community, 20 hectares in size (about 0.2 square kilometers), and is listed as not yet contained but there’s been good progress on it. The fire burned into a previously thinned area which slowed the progress down.”

On Wednesday a great deal of work was done with ground crews and air tankers to make significant progress on the Lagoon Fire. 

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A second fire, just west of Stanley Mission, is the larger fire with a size of 400 hectares, which is almost four times the size of downtown Saskatoon. 

“[The fire] has burnt from the south to the west of the community [and] northward. Crews are working on the containment lines for that fire as well.”

In their latest reports smoke in the Stanley Mission area isn’t too bad right now, but that all can change with the weather. 

Tammy Cook-Searson, Chief of the Lac La Ronge Indian Band, said thankfully there is no direct threat at to the community, but due to the smoke they have evacuated 290 people, 240 were evacuated Wednesday and another 50 Thursday. 

“We’ve evacuated the Elders, children under two and their families, families with prenatal [children], and ones with chronic illness.”

Those evacuated on Wednesday were taken to a community center in La Ronge, those people, along with the 50 evacuated Thursday, will all be taken to Saskatoon thanks to the help of the Red Cross. 

Wasylenchuk said there are a few fires of interest they are looking at near Pelican Narrows, one of the bigger ones is the Pearl Fire which is listed at 500 hectares, or just over five times the size of Downtown Saskatoon. 

“The crews have been making really good progress, winds are down and the fires are looking pretty good at this time.”

swallace@panow.com

On Twitter: @sarahthesquid