(File photo/Government of Saskatchewan)

By Glenn Hicks

wildfire season

Quiet wildfire season with minimal impact

Jul 4, 2019 | 2:41 PM

So far so good for wildfires in this province with the wet, cooler spring and early summer, especially across the North. However, the head of Saskatchewan’s firefighting efforts says there’s no guarantee it’ll stay this way with a lot of the season still ahead of us.

“Currently the entire province is rated at low and moderate hazard only,” Executive Director of Wildfire Management Steve Roberts told paNOW. But he cautioned a similar weather pattern to this was in place in 2017 before things changed into a long drawn-out season.

…we’ve only had two wildfires over a hundred hectares _{– Steve Roberts, Wildfire Management}

“We ended up with those Pelican Narrows fires that went right into October. Fire seasons are very unpredictable, so we plan for an early and late start; a long and short season. We’ll deal with it as nature doles it out to us,” he said.

Roberts explained only 164 wildfires were reported so far this year which is 60 per cent of the five-year average in terms of actual incidents. Only a thousand hectares has burned.

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“That’s a very low number and we’ve only had two wildfires over a hundred hectares,” he added.

That doesn’t mean Saskatchewan crews are at a standstill though. Roberts said 60 firefighters and specialists returned after helping out in Alberta and Yukon recently, and there is a nine-person incident command team in Alberta currently. Two air tanker groups are in Alaska and 10 four-person crews were heading for Manitoba on Friday.

As for the personnel numbers who are available to call upon in the event of things sparking to life, Roberts explained there were regular seasonal summer staff members now on shift and contract crews for First Nations and northern communities were signed up for the 20-week season. If there wasn’t fire work for them to do these crews could be called on to handle other community work as needed.

Too early to discuss wildfire budget savings

It’s no secret the provincial purse remains tight and a light wildfire season would certainly help the coffers. A total of $71.6 million is budgeted for this year, which is $10 million more than last year. The budget for the 2017-18 season was $67.5 million. However, Roberts stressed there was a lot of the wildfire season still to come.

“Our budget allocation is essentially for April through August and we’re only halfway through that period. We don’t make forecasts on expenditures until we get closer to October when we know if we’re on budget,” he said.

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glenn.hicks@jpbg.ca

On Twitter:@princealbertnow