A major northern Saskatchewan fire is now under control, while heavy smoke around the Flin Flon area has cleared.
The ALIR fire is still burning on the west shore of Amisk Lake, having spread from its original start site at Muskeg Bay to cover around 18,000 hectares of territory. Recent hotspots have been reported on the fire’s north, west and south sides. The fire has spread to several islands in Amisk Lake itself, but as of August 16, the blaze had not jumped onto Missi Island - the biggest island in the lake, but perhaps most importantly, an island that stretches from the fire’s current area towards Denare Beach. The ALIR fire is already larger in size than Missi Island.
As of August 16, the fire is still considered “not contained” by the Saskatchewan Public Safety Agency (SPSA).
The nearby Hobb fire is also still active and considered “not contained” by the SPSA, with hotspots reported in the past few days at the fire’s northern tip. The Hobb fire is about 3,500 hectares in size and is located due south of Hanson Lake, not far from Foran Mining’s McIlvenna Bay mine project property. Both fires have been actively burning for more than a month - both are thought to have been caused by lightning strikes.
Not all the fire news from northern Saskatchewan is bad, however - the Harding fire, which had been burning along Saskatchewan Highway 106 for weeks, is now considered to be “contained” by the SPSA. The fire crossed over the highway at several points north of Smeaton and has affected over 25,000 hectares of land, but no new hotspots have been reported with the fire in well over a week. The highway, which had been shut intermittently near Smeaton due to the fire while it burned, is fully open as of August 16.
The Point fire, located directly east of the Harding fire, is still burning but SPSA is classifying it as “protecting values.” That blaze has reached a maximum size of around 5,500 hectares.
Saskatchewan’s number of active fires has declined to 104 as of August 16. A total of 557 fires have been reported this summer throughout the province.
Manitoba
Fire situations in Manitoba are similar to the ones one province over - some good news mixed with more of the same.
The WE038 fire north of Kisseynew lake is still considered out of control well over a month after it started, but it has not advanced any closer to Flin Flon in days. The blaze is about 11,400 hectares in size and no recent hotspots have been reported in at least a week. With that said, Manitoba Conservation and Climate is still considering the fire to be “out of control”, well over a month after it was first discovered.
Action is being taken on the WE038 fire, along with the WE083 fire burning near Sherridon.
“The region has also been busy with demobilization of equipment from fires previously actioned and will continue suppression action on fire WE038 north of Flin Flon and Fire WE083 northeast of Sherridon/Cold Lake,” reads the most recent provincial fire report.
Three fires are still burning north of Snow Lake and east of Pukatawagan, but those fires have not seen notable growth this week. The WE064 fire near Pukatawagan and the WE032 fire north of Snow Lake are both still considered to be “out of control” as of August 16, while the WE049 fire near Highrock Lake is considered to be “monitored”. All three fires have been burning for over a month.
The WE032 fire is at around 52,000 hectares in size according to Natural Resources Canada and has burned territory about 20 kilometres away from Snow Lake. The WE064 fire, which has burned over 55,000 hectares in size, is now down to about 19,300 hectares of active fire activity, while the WE049 fire is now down to 12,800 hectares in size.
Areas around Flin Flon have varying fire risks as of August 16 - north of town is considered to be either “low” or “moderate”, but the area immediately south and west of Flin Flon - including Denare Beach, Bakers Narrows and other communities - is at a “high” risk, according to Natural Resources Canada.
Manitoba has 126 fires still burning as of August 16 and has reported 435 fires in total throughout the summer.
Smoke
Winds coming from the west have blanketed the Flin Flon, Creighton and Denare Beach area in fire smoke early this week, combining smoke from fires still burning in B.C. with smoke from fires west of the area communities. That smoke eased up August 17, but is likely to come back intermittently throughout the week, according to forecasts from firesmoke.ca.
According to online air quality monitoring websites, the Flin Flon area had among the worst air quality in Canada August 16. The combination of smoke from different regions, according to AQICN.org and WAQI.info, gave the Flin Flon area an Air Quality Index (AQI) of 442 - considered to be “hazardous”. Not only did that give the Flin Flon area the lowest AQI of any Canadian community where air quality data was available, it was also the worst air throughout North America - even American cities located near raging fires had lower readings than Flin Flon.
