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One of several fires that burned almost 300 homes in Saskatchewan this spring. (Facebook/Jay Are En)
2025 wildfire season

Almost 500 homes, cabins lost as wild spring cools down in Saskatchewan

Jun 18, 2025 | 4:09 PM

This year’s wildfire season in Saskatchewan has resulted in the loss of 277 primary residences and 218 of those were in one community.

The Saskatchewan Public Safety Agency confirmed that 218 homes were lost or damaged in Denare Beach to the Wolf Fire, making up the vast majority of the 277 primary residences burned across the province.

“I know this is a challenging time for many that are still out, especially Denare Beach. I do want to let everyone know that that I sympathize and I feel for your pain and your loss. And we are working together with your community leaders to help rebuild or the next steps toward rebuilding,” said Marlo Pritchard, president of the SPSA in a media conference this afternoon.

Along with the primary homes, 60 cabins and 160 RVs were burned by one of several wildfires that scorched millions of acres of land in northern Saskatchewan this year. No numbers were given for other belongings such as vehicles or RVs.

Issues like trees across main access roads and utility services are impacting who can go home and those who are still evacuated.

“Do they have their power back on? Do they have their communications back on?” said Steve Roberts, vice-president of operations. “It’s more about the infrastructure. Then as you get to a bigger community like Denare Beach or Creighton and infrastructure like hospital and community support folks and town water, there are more critical factors.”

No communities lost major municipal buildings such as water treatment plants, town halls or police detachments that the SPSA has learned of yet, but workers still need to make sure everything is running properly for people to return.

As of June 18, five communities still have some level of evacuation going on, including Cumberland House, Denare Beach, Creighton, Whelan Bay and East Trout Lake.

The SPSA said it is supporting 172 individuals who are still evacuated but a number of people, especially in Indigenous communities, deal with the Red Cross and are counted separately. SPSA also does not have numbers for people who self-evacuated.

Rain and cooler temperatures have allowed crews to make headway on containing the fires.

The Shoe Fire, which is 554,000 hectares and burned parts of East Trout Lake, closed the Narrow Hills Provincial Park for the season and threatened multiple other communities (Candle Lake, Smeaton, Whelan Bay) is now about 40 per cent contained.

Rain has led many communities in the area to lift their fire bans although people are still being reminded that safe burning is required.

The Jaysmith Fire (165,000 hectares) is categorized as protecting values and is being actioned by Type 1 and 2 Crews, air support and contracted float planes.

West of La Ronge, the Pisew Fire is just over 180,000 hectares and is also not contained. That fire burned two businesses in the Town of La Ronge but the tri-communities have now repatriated back home.

READ MORE: Public warned to stay off of La Ronge Air Operations Base

The Wolf Fire is not contained either and has reached just over 130,000 hectares. It destroyed a number of homes in the Northern Village of Denare Beach and the nearby reserve, Amisk Lake, which is part of the Peter Ballantyne Cree Nation.

The site of a teen camp at Amisk Lake, near Denare Beach

Pritchard said that they continue to use Saskatchewan firefighting crews and external resources from South Dakota, Colorado, the US Forest Service, Washington State and Arizona.

“The other aspect is none of the four significant fires have grown in any shape or form, or have posed any new risks or threats,” said Pritchard.

Pritchard was asked several times about the NDP report that four of the province’s 10 airtankers were not operational this spring, a number he confirmed.

However, he said that federal aviation requirements played a role.

“From time to time, any of our aircraft will have mechanical issues that may ground them for a short period of time, from hours to days and unfortunately, sometimes longer. This is a normal part of operating any air fleet,” he said.

“We were well aware of these challenges and that is why we brought on extra aircraft from other jurisdictions early in the season.”

At least two of the four planes are undergoing structural inspections because of the physical stress caused by the amount and type of flying they do.

susan.mcneil@pattisonmedia.com

On BlueSky: @susanmcneil.bsky.social