By paNOW Staff

Province issues fire ban

May 18, 2011 | 9:50 AM

It’s not the news campers wanted to hear with the May long weekend approaching. The extreme fire hazard has now prompted a ban on open fires in Saskatchewan's northern forest.

The ban applies to just about everything south of the Churchill River System to around Prince Albert and all the way to the neighbouring provinces.

A map of the fire-ban area is available here (http://tinyurl.com/423d6zo) and a list of the particular parks is available here (http://tinyurl.com/3arqgkx).

Scott Roberts, executive director of the province’s wildfire management said the fire ban is incredibly important at this time of year because people are usually the cause of fires.

“All the fires that occur at this time of the year are predominantly man-caused fires through misuse, accidents, ATV use, open fire burning, so we made the decision to restrict that burning… since we know that pretty much half the province is going to be heading to the forests in the next couple of days,” he said.

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“That will include all provincial parks in that area, all private land and leased land.”

In addition he said all fire permits are suspended for the duration of the ban.

Under the ban, open fires are prohibited and that any fire permits are suspended until further notice.

The danger comes because several years of wet weather means there’s more fine fuel able to burn this fire season.

Roberts said it’s especially important for people to be cautious of things such as discarded cigarettes or hot exhaust pipes from vehicles.

“All of that fine fuel, the grass and the shrubs hasn’t greened up and is extremely dry because we havn’t had any measurable precipitation,” he said.

“So if you’re smoking and you dropped your cigarette, if you’re in a quad and parked in a bunch of dry grass you could cause a fire.”

While the ban prohibits open fires, people are still able to have fires with briquettes and use natural gas stoves.
Under provincial law any person found responsible for a forest fire can be held liable for damages.

Roberts said the province constantly monitors the situation and the when the ban is lifted, it will come through a public announcement.

Municipalities follow suit

Provincial bans do not apply to municipalities but many are following suit. Currently the city of Prince Albert and the Town of La Ronge have both enacted a fire bans.

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