La Ronge evacuees arrive in the Battlefords with no return timeline

“It was a little hectic at first, we were scared what would happen, ‘cause HWY 2 was blocked,” he said, noting emergency personnel told them to put on their hazard lights and not to stop.

“It was pretty heavy smoke, we couldn’t see anything.”

It took them about four or five hours to get to Prince Albert, and two of those were spent sitting still, though at one point people started getting out of the vehicles. Singh recalled they could see ambulances and fire trucks drive past and once the convoy started to move again, the only thing that kept them on the road were the fires burning along the sides.

“You close your eyes, open your eyes, same thing,” he said.

He and his family are among the roughly 175 evacuees so far to arrive in the Battlefords, and the City has been working with interagency to coordinate relief response. According to Candace Toma, public and intergovernmental relations coordinator, evacuees started to arrive Monday night, and there is a substantial amount of information that needs to be pulled together to understand the full picture.

“It’s a rapidly evolving and fluid situation,” she said.

“The city is working directly with levels of government, tribal councils and different community-based organizations to make sure that we work with everybody in the community to make sure that we’re supporting people as best we can.”

Jojie Balila and her community members couild only see vehicle hazard lights and used them as their guide. (Julia Lovett-Squires/BattlefordsNOW Staff)

Battlefords MLA Jeremy Cockrill said the community will step up as always and in an interview with battlefordsNOW last week, Cockrill explained while they weren’t sure what to expect, he said the Saskatchewan Public Safety Agency, Red Cross and different community partners were heavily involved at the time.

“I’ve found at least in my time in the community that [it’s] a very generous community,” he said.

“So, if there’s people coming from another community and they don’t have a home right now or they don’t know if their home is still there, people here have stepped up in the past and I know people here will step up again.”

That generosity has been a common observation by evacuees and the SPSA personnel on the ground have been helpful.

“They’re very nice, that’s what I can say, they did really a good job, like great job,” said Jojie Balila.

The highway out of town. (Damandeep Singh)

She said her journey to get to the Battlefords separated her family as only she and her daughter left La Ronge – her firefighter husband and son who works for the SPSA as an aircraft mechanic stayed back to help efforts.

“I’m not only worried for ourselves but also for my family,” she said.

Balila said she and other members of her family and friends left in a convoy of three cars and 15 minutes after leaving the town, she said the highway traffic was at a standstill. When they did begin moving again, they heard rumours of people being turned back to the town. After some phone calls to her cousin who was in one of the cars up ahead and being assured they could indeed drive on, zero visibility forced them to go slowly.

“You could only see the lights – the flickering lights – that’s your only guide,” she said referring to the hazards.

The thickness of the smoke has been a struggle for residents over the past weeks and now as they escape north, the headaches and breathing issues are exasperating the situation.

“I got a really bad cough, my sisters are actually sick right now in their hotel rooms with chest infections,” said Jeannie Charles.

Earlier Wednesday afternoon, she and 12-year-old Olwynn Clarke picked up some food from the Northland Power Curling Centre where evacuees are being fed to bring back to her sisters.

Jeannie Charles and 12-year-old Olwynn Clarke take food back to sick family members. (Julia Lovett-Squires/BattlefordsNOW Staff)

Charles said she knows a lot of people with chronic lung conditions, and they aren’t doing well because of the exposure.

“It’s nice to breathe here,” she said.

Reflecting on their journey to the Battlefords, Clarke said she doesn’t know how she feels at the moment. As the fires rage and their town and businesses like the Robertson Trading Post succumb to the flames, a deep feeling of loss and uncertainty is settling in.

“It was a symbol for Indigenous people I think,” she said of the local institution which ran for nearly 60 years and sold moccasins, beadwork and hides.

“It had a big, beautiful painting by the side of the wall on the outside.”

They said the drive had been scary and compounding the trip were the accidents between the vehicles.

“I was fortunate enough not to – if I didn’t stop – I would have hit the vehicle in front of me,” said Charles.

Looking out at what they could see, the environmental devastation was total.

“It was heartbreaking to see all those burnt trees,” added Clarke.

“There was at least 10-20 kilometres of it I think.”

Prithivraj Selvakumar and his family arrived in La Ronge four months ago. (Julila Lovett-Squires/battlefordsNOW Staff)

Prithivraj Selvakumar said he and his family had to drive through the wildfire.

“It was pretty difficult, it was hard and being an immigrant and we didn’t know what to do exactly,” he said of the trip that took them from city after city before landing in the North Battleford.

Having only been living in La Ronge for four months and in Canada one year, he had heard that the country had a clear way of handling crises.

“That is one thing that I am really happy about,” he said.

Of the volunteer efforts, Selvakumar is grateful.

“They don’t have to do that but they’re just going out of the box and helping us and that is really something.”

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julia.lovett-squires@pattisonmedia.com

On BlueSky: juleslovett.bsky.social

by Julia Lovett-Squires

La Ronge evacuees arrive in the Battlefords with no return timeline

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