SASKATOON -- While remnants of the massive Cloverdale wildfire could keep burning for weeks, the situation is now stable enough that some evacuees can head home.
The wildfire reached the edge of Prince Albert earlier this week before moving east towards farmland.
The Saskatchewan Public Safety Agency (SPSA) said as of late Wednesday afternoon the fire was about 65 per cent contained, but wind speeds and changing wind direction made the situation challenging.
By Thursday morning, the fire was considered "contained," according to the Ministry of Environment.
According to Steve Roberts, the SPSA's vice president of operations, cooler weather has helped keep the fire under control.
“Due to favourable conditions and the effort of crews, no growth of the fire in the past 24 hours,” Roberts said.
Some fire evacuees will be able to return to their homes later on Thursday.
The change in weather allowed heavy equipment to be moved into the area to establish a fire guard around the fire, followed by ground crews.
Roberts said the fire is far from being extinguished and all of the flames won’t be put out for a few weeks with small fires still burning within the fire zone.
“Growth will still occur probably within the perimeter and crews and suppression efforts will continue on the fire both my ourselves and our partner agencies,” Roberts said.
Some evacuees with homes in Prince Albert city limits and the RM of Buckland can return home by 5 p.m. Thursday.
“Evacuees that have returned home are on a precautionary evacuation alert and should be prepared to leave on short notice when advised,” said a news release from the City of Prince Albert.
The city said 79 households have registered at its evacuation centre.
Forty people are being supported by the province in hotels, 19 have left to stay with family or friends, according the SPSA crisis support spokesperson Joan Hrycyk.
Highway 55 is now open with a temporary reduced speed limit of 60 km/hr, RCMP said. Pulp Haul Road and Honeymoon Road from Whitestar Road to Highway 55 are still only accessible to firefighters, SaskPower and SaskTel traffic.
There is still some smoke in the area and visibility may be reduced.
Due to the road closures some have been unable to return to their homes.
The SPSA will be doing an air survey of the area and make an inventory of damages to property like buildings, shed, and public infrastructure like bridge or cell towers.
So far, no homes have burned and no significant structural losses have been reported, according to the SPSA.
No livestock was burned in the fire, the agency said.
The air quality in the area has also improved. Smoke production from the fire is very limited and only coming from a couple locations such as sawdust pile, Roberts said.
The Reeve of the RM of Garden River Ryan Scragg said large piles of wood chips in the Aallcann Wood Suppliers Inc. site are still burning, causing some smoke in the area.
The cause of the fire hasn’t been determined and a joint investigation with the province and City of Prince Albert is underway.
While the fire's eastward shift led to an evacuation order for an area in the RM of Garden River Wednesday morning, there have been no new orders to evacuate issued since.
"Everybody's doing the best they can at this point," Scragg said on Wednesday.
Scragg said residents of the RM are no stranger to fires, but this one was fuelled by a nearby forest that hasn't seen a blaze in decades.
Farmers were helping provide water on the ground to help save their neighbours' properties as helicopters fought the blaze from the air, Scragg said.
Although property damage from the wildfire has been minimal, the blaze left residents of communities north of Prince Albert without power.
During an update Wednesday morning, SaskPower spokesperson Joel Cherry said around 8,000 customers were hit by the outage.
The power outage led to a state of emergency declaration for Stanley Mission as the community also is working to tamp down a COVID-19 flare-up and is coping with water issues.
On Wednesday, SaskPower said crews were making "significant" progress in fixing a transmission line wrecked by the Cloverdale wildfire and service could be restored by Thursday afternoon.
However, in an update issued Thursday morning, the utility said crews worked through the night but had to contend with "very difficult, boggy terrain" that caused some machines to get stuck.
(SaskPower)
Due to the challenges crews are facing, SaskPower pushed its estimated time for the restoration of service to 8 p.m. Thursday evening.
The Saskatchewan Health Authority (SHA) is urging caution when it comes to frozen and refrigerated food in the wake of the extended outage.
"It is important to recognize that extended power outages can affect the safety of food in refrigerators and freezers," the SHA said in a news release.
The SHA recommends foods including meat products, fish and seafood and milk be discarded if stored above 4 C for more than two hours.
The SHA said it's important to document the amount and type of food being thrown out for insurance purposes.
The Prince Albert Police Service said it issued $2,000 tickets to two people who were found unlawfully inside the perimeter of the fire overnight on Tuesday.
The man and a woman didn't live in the area where they were found, police said.
--With Canadian Press files.
