There are currently 11 active wildfires burning in Saskatchewan. (Submitted photo: Ryan Reid)

By Teena Monteleone

Possible evacuation

SPSA wildfire update: residents near Candle Lake, Meath Park on high alert

May 15, 2025 | 12:41 PM

A pre-alert for possible evacuation has been issued by Candle Lake Emergency Services as a result of the ‘Camp’ and ‘Shoe’ fires currently burning to the east of the resort village.

In a public notice issued Thursday morning, the village said the Saskatchewan Public Safety Agency (SPSA) is providing support to the municipality in the event the situation escalates beyond its capacity.

“While there is no immediate danger, residents are advised to stay alert and begin planning for a potential evacuation, which could occur on short notice should the situation escalate,” the notice read.

A photo of the Shoe fire burning near Smeaton and Choiceland taken May 13. (Submitted photo/Ryan Reid)

The human-caused Camp Fire is approximately 32,000 hectares in size. It is considered uncontained and is burning about 25 kilometres to the east of Candle Lake, about 15 kilometres away from Smeaton and 11 kilometres away from Snowden.

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Bob Reid is a farmer who resides in the area. He said the fire is near the community pasture land. He and other area farmers have been discing burning fields with their own equipment. Reid questioned the SPSA’s response to the fire.

“Why aren’t there any CATS going at night? What do we got to do different so these fires don’t get so wild?” said Reid. “All that beautiful scenery at Gem Lakes and Fishing Lake is gone. These fires were started by people, and there are still people running quads. If there is a fire ban in place, it should be a fire ban for everything.”

During a press conference Thursday, Bryan Chartrand, executive director of land operations for SPSA, said night operations are prioritized and assessed on a number of factors, including safety for staff and resource availability.

“We do [work overnight] on very extreme occasions, when it’s necessary we do. We will monitor a fire and action the fire work with heavy equipment, whatever it may be, if it’s a very highly populated and high value infrastructure within that area, but again it’s case by case and monitored on a daily basis,” said Chartrand.

Another area resident, Carissa Schmidt said the flames are just a few kilometres away from her property and it’s been a ‘farmers effort’ to keep them at bay.

“Lots of farmers have banned together to help us out. There’s CATS up north of us and people are bringing water tanks and so we’ll just be soaking everything throughout the night and hoping that will help,” she said.

The Shoe Fire, which was also human-caused, has charred about 16,000 hectares. It caused significant damage to Narrow Hills provincial park. The Ministry of Parks, Culture and Sport said the Gem Lakes campground and hiking trails, along with the Lost Echo campground will be closed for the 2025 season.

In an email to paNOW, the ministry said, “There isn’t much infrastructure at Gem Lakes and Lost Echo campgrounds but more importantly the trees and vegetation in the areas was destroyed.”

The rest of the park – including the main area campgrounds – will remain closed until May 29. If there is no additional fire damage over the next couple of weeks, they do intend for the park to open for the 2025 season.

Some residents around Lower Fishing Lake, Piprell Lake, White Swan and East Trout Lake have evacuated, and the SPSA said if residents from that area have any questions, they could call 1-800-667-9660.

The fires burning near Onion Lake and Meadow Lake Provincial Park are both considered contained.

As of Thursday, there were 11 active wildfires burning in the province, which is an improvement from the 24 burning a week ago. Out of those 11, only five are contained.

“Saskatchewan had had 155 wildfires, which is the same as this time last year. This is above the five-year average of 96 wildfires to date,” said Chartrand.

Three external resources, two water bombers from Quebec and another from Alaska, are helping to fight the wildfires in the province. Heavy equipment and various helicopters and air tankers are also being used.

“We also have contractors out there with values protection, and we also have our ignition team and a Type 2 incident management team,” said Chartrand. “Our resources fluctuate as they’re needed and prioritized…but at this moment, we have 53 resources on the Camp fire and we have 65 resources on the Shoe fire.”

The fire ban north of the provincial forest boundary and up to the Churchill River remains active as the fire risk in parts of the province remains high. The SPSA asked the public to take precautions and be diligent with fire safety over the May long weekend by not driving on dry grass and respecting any fire bans that may be in place.

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teena.monteleone@pattisonmedia.com