Fast-moving Canadian Wildfire ravages northern Sask.
Pastor Dale Morgan
Fast-moving Canadian Wildfire ravages northern Sask.*
Updated Mon. Jun. 30 2008 9:12 PM ET
CTV
CANADA - A fast-moving forest fire, fuelled by gusty winds and dry
weather, continues to blaze mere kilometres away from a northern
Saskatchewan community.
The fire has already forced about 200 people from their homes in Stony
Rapids, Sask., a town south of the boundary with the Northwest Territories.
More than 200 people, mostly senior citizens and residents with health
problems, were airlifted Sunday night from Stony Rapids and the nearby
community of Stony Lake to Prince Albert, about 800 kilometres south.
Other residents drove about 90 minutes southeast to Black Lake.
While firefighters and water tankers from the Northwest Territories and
Alberta are trying to control the flames, hot and windy conditions
remain in the forecast.
Fire crews are using water bombers, fire guards and chemical retardant
to try stopping the fire's progress and save the communities.
Judy Orthner, a communications director with Saskatchewan Corrections,
Public Safety and Policing, is encouraging residents of Stony Rapids and
nearby Stony Lake to find a way out.
"There may be people who, for whatever reasons, they decide they want to
stay in the community,'' she told The Canadian Press. "We have to abide
by their wishes to stay.''
Orthner said the weather plays a big factor in deciding how long people
will be asked to stay away from their homes.
"Of course, wind always play a big factor when you're dealing with a
forest fire situation," Orthner told CTV Newsnet in a phone interview
from Regina, "so we're making sure that the wind doesn't shift and blow
the fire back towards the community before we give the all-clear for
people to start making their way home."
Another blaze near Sandy Bay, 450 kilometres southeast of Stony Rapids,
has forced 210 high-risk residents to evacuate their homes.
That fire has been ablaze near the community for about a week.
The mayor of Sandy Bay asked that the sick and elderly be flown out as a
precaution, although there was no direct threat on Monday.
Meanwhile, officials in Pelican Narrows, about 70 kilometres south of
Sandy Bay, are making contingency plans.
The fire jumped a road linking Sandy Bay and Pelican Narrows on Monday
afternoon, forcing it to be closed temporarily.