Prince Albert fire fighters and members of the public spent eight hours fighting wildfire earlier this week in the R.M. of Prince Albert on Elevator Road near Highway #2 after it was ignited by someone using fireworks. (Facebook/Prince Albert Fire Department)

By Nick Nielsen

what to know

Fire bans: what is and isn’t allowed

May 16, 2025 | 5:15 PM

Camping season is officially here with the May Long weekend officially underway, but there are a lot of fire bans currently active around the province that should stop you from lighting a fire for your weekend adventures.

Bryan Chartrand is the Executive Director of Land Operations for the Saskatchewan Public Safety Agency, and for the most part, it’s any open flame that isn’t allowed under most fire bans.

“We’re restricting just fires. Whether that’s a campfire or you’re going out fishing on the lake and you’re going to have a shore lunch, and you think, ‘Oh, I’m going to start a little fire’. Well, a lot of those aren’t put out properly, and those get away a few hours or even days after they’ve been ignited. So that’s what we’re trying to stop.”

That ban includes controlled fires in the park, provided campfires or wood-burning BBQs, and essentially any other fire that is wood-burning. That doesn’t include all open flames though, so if you use things such as citronella candles around your campsite to keep mosquitoes away, you aren’t going to find yourself in trouble.

A lot of people are now bringing propane-burning fire pits to the lake with them as well, and even though they do provide an open flame, they don’t release any sparks that could potentially light up other parts of the park. These are still allowed under the province’s issued fire bans, along with propane fire BBQs as long as the proper precautions are taken.

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“If it’s propane, there’s no restrictions. Again, just cook in a nice, cleaned out area. Don’t do it in the middle of a bunch of shrubs and grass or anything like that, where there’s flammable material and again, don’t walk away letting it slow cook or something like that. Always be around and keep an eye on it because it is very, very dry and it’s been very windy. So when something does ignite, it will get away really quickly.”

There are 11 active wildfires in the province right now and a total of 156 fires that have ignited in Saskatchewan since the start of 2025, and the majority of them have been man-made, according to the SPSA. With that many man-made fires in a year, the SPSA is adamant that people need to think about how dry the conditions are.

“I think it’s just negligence. Regardless of what activity, there are various reasons that some of these fires occurred, and it’s just people not really realizing how extreme the conditions are and how easily ignitable and how fast and quickly they grow out of control, and so that’s why we’re trying to urge people to be very cautious. If you’re working, grinding something or welding, there’s always hot sparks, and we’ve had fires get away that way.”

If you are responsible for a fire that gets out of hand and starts to cause damage to property, you could be on the hook for some hefty fines or possibly even jail time.

“Provincially, it’s rather steep. You can be fined up to $500,000 per day that the fire is going. You can be imprisoned for up to three years, and you can also be billed the entire cost of that fire, and some fires run into the millions of dollars.”

While the provincial parks are under the jurisdiction of the province, there are different regulations in the different RMs around the province. Chartrand urged the public that if they do have concerns about what is and isn’t allowed under the current fire bans, check with your local RM.

“There’s numerous RMs that have fire bans and I can’t speak on their behalf of what they restrict, so I encourage the public to go and ask those local areas that have fire bans on on what’s restricted and they might even have it on their website or on Facebook pages and things like that as well.”

For the most up to date information on fire bans and active wildfires in the province, visit our Wildfire page by clicking here.

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nick.nielsen@pattisonmedia.com