Saskatchewan communities request fire training as province’s wildfire season begins

Saskatchewan is anticipating a dry summer, and with those drier conditions comes the increasing possibility of wildfires.

Cliff Buettner, director of forestry and emergency protective services with the Prince Albert Grand Council said they’ve hired 155 firefighters this year, which is the norm, but have seen several communities come forward requesting emergency fire personnel training, as well as First Nations volunteer fire departments.

4:09 Prince Albert Grand Council preparing for wildfire season

“Normally when there’s a lot of smoke in the air, then we have a lot of interest from the communities to train community members for emergency firefighting,” Buettner said.

He said for a group of about 20 people, it’s a five-day program to get basic certification for community members to be involved in emergency firefighting.

Buettner said the important thing is to try and reduce human-caused fires, which are more prevalent in the spring before lightning hits.

Bryan Chartrand, executive director of land operations with the Saskatchewan Public Safety Agency, said there were five active wildfires in Saskatchewan.

“We’re as prepared as we can be. We’re still doing some internal hiring with vacancies as we do every year at this time of year, but right now we’re fairly confident and we’re ready,” Chartrand said.

He said they expect some of the fire starts over the weekend to get soaked by the possible snow heading for the province.

Chartrand said their staffing sits at about 90-per cent capacity.

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Steve Roberts, vice-president of operations for SPSA said last week that there were 220 type one firefighters and 410 type two firefighters being staffed for 2024, which is the same as last year, but added that there is room to expand if need be.

Chartrand said interest in wildfire fighting has been dwindling over the years, but said this year was better than last year.

He said this line of work is very demanding, saying it’s labour-intensive, challenging and potentially dangerous.

Chartrand added that much of the work is in rural and remote parts of Saskatchewan’s north end, which could also attribute to some of the declining interest in work.

He said there were several factors in how a wildfire is addressed, pointing to potential logistical issues in getting firefighters out to some more remote areas.

“We have our type two contractors that are all within various communities in the north, and they can be there within half an hour to a couple of hours.”

He said based on the intensity of the fire they could also consider putting type three firefighters, who are members of the community hired on with basic training.

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