Without heavy rains, forest fires are expected to burn well past September in the northern parts of Saskatchewan even with nearly 2,000 personnel working to battle the blazes.
“We’re working on the fire line and containing it for [the] summer,” said Daryl Jessop of Saskatchewan’s Wildfire Management Branch.
“This work is going to go through to the end of September without a tremendous rainfall,” said Jessop. “Even when we have to wrap up the equipment, there is still going to be a tremendous amount of work for the emergency crews.”
Jessop reported a total of 1,759 fire fighters, military personnel and volunteers working on the fire line.
Weather conditions continue to wreak havoc with temperatures reaching into the 30s and little rain in the forecast.
“There is a fair amount of [lightning in the forecast] and without rain there is the potential for additional fire starts,” said Jessop.
The La Ronge area did receive another three millimetres of rain earlier this week, but it was not a significant amount to change the fire situation, reported Wildfire Management during a media conference call.
Fires have been burning for more than two weeks in the northern part of Saskatchewan, endangering numerous communities, including La Ronge.
As of Wednesday morning, of the 126 fires actively burning in the province, 64 of them were in the La Ronge region.
