While many Saskatchewan residents were not happy with a longer than usual winter, it has left the province with a slower start to wildfire season, according to the Saskatchewan Public Safety Agency (SPSA).
The SPSA held a briefing on Monday morning, which explained the current wildfire situation in the province, as well as an estimation of the warmer months ahead.
“Almost all weather models are in agreement that the entire province will experience warmer than average temperatures throughout the months of May, through to October,” said Marlo Pritchard, president and fire commissioner at SPSA.
Melting can still be found in certain parts of the province, but due to severe dry conditions last year in places like the south-west corner of Saskatchewan, there are already places now in moderate to severe drought.
The SPSA encourages everyone to do their part in practicing fire safety. This can be done by maintenance of property, properly pruning trees and branches, as well as properly storing combustible materials.
“With camping just around the corner, we encourage you to ‘float and stir’ to make sure campfire coals are completely out,” Pritchard said.
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To battle fires in the coming months, the SPSA has many highly trained firefighters, a fleet of land-based air-tankers, in addition to various aircraft.
Later this week, a new water scooping air tanker will be arriving in Regina.
The SPSA recommends that anyone heading into the wilderness download the SaskAlert app. The app gives critical emergency information in real time.
At the time of publication, there are 12 active fires in Saskatchewan, with eight of them being contained, according to the SPSA.
