Heavy wildfire smoke forced the evacuation of P1 and P2 residents of Montreal Lake Cree Nation. (Melfort Fire Dept/Facebook)

By paNOW Staff

Wildfire update

Montreal Lake Cree Nation evacuates priority residents due to wildfire smoke

Jul 13, 2025 | 7:16 PM

While there is no immediate danger to the community, leadership at Montreal Lake Cree Nation have issued an evacuation order due to smoke from the fire burning just to the north.

“The smoke is fast-moving, and individuals who are listed on the Priority 1 and Priority 2 list must start evacuation immediately due to high density of smoke that will be reaching the community,” the order read.

Montreal Lake’s priority list consists of people with existing respiratory conditions (e.g., asthma, lung cancer, COPD), people with existing cardiovascular conditions (e.g., angina, previous heart attack, congestive heart failure), infants under 6 months old, the elderly, pregnant women, and people with diabetes.

Residents leaving the community will be housed in North Battleford. So far, evacuations have taken place in a resort subdivision Lac La Plonge, La Plonge Reserve, Northern Village of Beauval, Jans Bay, and Kinoosao. P1 and P2 residents from Patuanak/English River First Nation, Canoe Lake/Cole Bay/Canoe Narrows have been evacuated.

The Muskeg fire has now charred nearly 100,000 hectares north of Beauval and La Plonge. The Saskatchewan Public Safety Agency (SPSA) reported on Sunday that crews will continue working the area around Hwy 918 and Hwy 165, near the community of Beauval. Crews are retrieving gear from value protection sites that are in the clear. Heavy equipment will focus on the forks, and near English River First Nation and La Plonge Reserve. Helicopters are supporting crews where needed.

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There are currently 57 active wildfires in the province; 12 of them are not contained.

Beauval wildfire ‘miscalculation’

The NDP MLA for Athabasca, Leroy Laliberte, claims the SPSA miscalculated the power of the wildfires burning near Beauval.

“We were getting these daily updates,” he said. “One of the updates we had was that the SPSA said that the fire wouldn’t hit the community until Monday, which gave us four days, well actually it was four hours.”

“People were in scramble mode to get out of the community when the fire hit,” he said. “I’m really thankful that nobody’s been hurt.”

Laliberte said the community tried its best to warn everyone as soon as they were told they had to evacuate.

“The mayor made an announcement on the local radio and said, ‘pack a bag, we need to leave here now,’” he said. “Just a miscommunication directly … is what affected (the people) the most.”

Laliberte said the miscalculation put people in danger, and that more support was needed for the first responders who were on the ground fighting the blaze.

“This is totally unacceptable, we have people’s lives on the line here,” he said. “We have people on the ground that I feel weren’t supported.”

NDP MLA for Athabasca Leroy Laliberte spoke with media after the Beauval evacuation order. (Will Mandzuk/650CKOM)

Nick Daigneault, former mayor of Beauval and leader of the Emergency Operations Committee said it was a scary situation that could have been even worse.

“We had a dire situation (on Thursday) night where the winds blew the fires into our community,” he said. “It was touch and go there for a while.”

The Emergency Operations Committee was also out telling people to leave the community as soon as possible.

“We activated our emergency plan and went door knocking,” he said. “We had a list of who had stayed behind and made sure our citizens were safe.”

Daigneault said there was minimal damage to the community.

“We’re glad to report we lost no households,” he said. “However we did lose one recreational structure although in the grand scheme of things that’s not such a big deal.”

Fire bans

A fire ban was put in place for northern parts of the province including the area north of the provincial forest boundary, up to the Churchill River.

It restrics open fires, controlled burns and fireworks within the boundary. ATV/UTVs were not included in the ban put in place on July 10.

There are still active bans in 20 urban municipalities, 31 rural municipalities and four provincial parks in the province, with the fire danger considered high to extreme for much of the province.

SPSA says there have been 362 fires in Saskatchewan so far in 2025. The five-year average to date for Saskatchewan wildfires is 211.

–With files from CKOM

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