Wind direction to determine fate of Sask. town as wildfire threat grows
The Town of Creighton's fate hangs in the wind direction.
The small northeastern community is just across the border from Flin Flon, Man., with a huge wildfire threatening both communities.
Winds are expected to pick up and change direction tonight, pushing the fire directly toward both towns.
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"With a big change in wind we are going to be patrolling the edge [of town] with tankers and fire trucks and hoses and things like that to hopefully stop any embers or anything flying into the community and start up," said Mayor Bruce Fidler, who remains in Creighton.
He said only firefighters and public works crew are still in town as the rest of the residents have been evacuated.
The mayor said there is only one escape route for those few people who remain: Highway 106 toward La Ronge.
Firefighters are working on that edge of the fire in a bid to keep the highway open, but Fidler says that might not be enough.
"If we can get the retardant planes in here to put kind of a [fire] break in, hopefully to stop where we think it might cross the highway.
"It's extremely worrying," Fiddler said. "That's why we've got 99 per cent of our people out of town, because it could move in very fast."
Red Cross assisting evacuees
The Canadian Red Cross is assisting with evacuee registration and providing meals and emergency accommodations for Saskatchewan residents fleeing wildfires.
"It's been hard to find places for people with so many people evacuating [communities] all at one," said Luc Mullinder, Canadian Red Cross vice-president for Saskatchewan, Manitoba and Nunavut, in an CBC News Network interview.
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"We're working with a number of organizations that are trying to help people from Saskatchewan and Manitoba. In a really bad situation it has been refreshing to hear from all of the organizations reaching out."
Evacuees can also register with the Canadian Red Cross on its website, which also has information for people looking to donate to a relief fund established specifically for Saskatchewan and Manitoba evacuees.
'We're very fortunate': cabin owner
With wildfires continuing to rampage, Regina resident Trevor Phenix went north this week to save his cabin.
Phenix, who owns a family cabin near Besnard Lake, about 560 kilometres north of Regina, already lost the cabin once in 2015 to wildfires and had to rebuild it. He said he had been watching the fire's progress for days and made the call to head up to the area Monday morning.
"I got a call from my cousin asking if I'd seen the fire map," he said. "I looked at it and it was pretty apparent that the fire was either already at the cabin or was going to be there pretty quickly."
Phenix went up to the cabin with a plan to test and set up more sprinklers and fire pumps.
On Tuesday morning, he saw a fire within about 75 metres of the cabin. Phenix said he hustled to make sure the sprinklers were working, and by the time he got to the top of the cabin, the fire had reached its base.
Phenix was able to save the cabin with the help of a friend after dousing the area with water.
"We're very fortunate, very lucky."
Wildfire damaging infrastructure
SaskTel said in a news release Wednesday a wildfire near McLennan Lake, northeast of La Ronge, had damaged fibre infrastructure, causing major network congestion in northern Saskatchewan.
Internet, wireless and landline phone services have been disrupted in several communities, including Southend, Wollaston Lake, Stony Rapids and Fond du Lac, the Crown telecomms corporation said.
Crews are currently unable to access the area and begin repairs due to the fire threat, SaskTel said.
"Customers in the impacted areas may experience slower than usual data services, dropped phone calls, and discontinued data sessions," it said.
Hot, dry forecast spells trouble
A meteorologist is warning the upcoming weather forecast isn't good news for the wildfire outlook in northern Saskatchewan, with hot, dry and windy conditions in the foreseeable future.
"We're not getting any relief, unfortunately," said Justin Shelly, a meteorologist with Environment and Climate Change Canada. "We're expecting very warm conditions to continue."
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A cold front will develop from Alberta that will move to Saskatchewan on Friday, but it will only create some isolated chances of showers and thunderstorms, said Shelly.
"There's not going to be a lot of accumulations in terms of rainfall amounts associated with this," he said.
Shelly said another system from Alberta will be coming Saturday night into Sunday morning, but most of the rainfall will hit isolated spots of northern Saskatchewan, with only about five to 15 millimetres in those areas.
Ideal weather conditions to help with the wildfires would include multiple days of persistent rain and cooler temperatures without any significant gusty winds, he said.
"Unfortunately, it doesn't look like we're going to see anything like that come up here in the next week or 10 days."
ATVs banned in Sask. forests
The provincial fire ban now includes the use of the all-terrain vehicles (ATV) and utility-terrain vehicles (UTV) in designated areas, according to the Saskatchewan Public Safety Agency.
ATVs and UTVs are banned on vacant Crown land and in the provincial forest, which includes provincial parks and the Northern Saskatchewan Administrative District, according to the Saskatchewan Public Safety Agency (SPSA).
The fire ban already prohibits open fires, controlled burns and fireworks in those same areas.
The provincial fire ban does not include the entire province. Currently, it's up to municipalities and rural municipalities to implement local fire bans.
This article, written by Jeffery Tram, was originally published by CBC News on May 30, 2025. It contains files from Jeremy Warren, Scott Larson and the CBC's Morning Edition.