‘It’s a blessing’: Rainfall expected to dampen Sask. wildfire season

The rain falling on the province this week isn’t good for just farmers. It’s also helping prevent wildfires.

“It’s a blessing,” said Cliff Buettner, director of forestry and protective services for the Prince Albert Grand Council.

He said the amount of moisture in the air will “immensely” reduce the threat of fires starting in the province.

The Prince Albert Grand Council and the province’s Public Safety Agency work together to tackle wildfires, which are primarily human caused. Last year was especially hot and dry for Saskatchewan, with 494 fires recorded, well above the five-year average of 397.

Buettner said recent blazes have been more prominent in the southern parts of the province and in grassy areas.

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“In the last week we had quite a few fires – more human-caused, because we haven’t had lighting this year,” he said.

The threat a fire poses can partly be determined by the moisture content – how dry the vegetation is – in the forest and in the parkland. Fine fuel moisture – small vegetation like leaves and twigs – is one of the components in the Canadian Forest Fire Index, which calculates how fuel moisture and weather conditions contribute to fire behavior.

“When the indices are high, it affects the rate of spread (and) affects the intensities of fires,” Buettner explained.

“We’ve had hardly any moisture throughout the spring, so this amount of moisture that we are getting right now is going to reduce that threat.”

But, he noted, the moisture level in fine fuels can change quickly, and 20-degree weather and strong winds won’t take long to dry out surface fuels and fine fuels.

Buettner said the grand council is working to raise awareness around fires that are caused by humans, and reminds everyone to pay attention to the wind’s conditions, which can exponentially increase the threat of spreading a fire.

“It can create a lot of issues when we have spread rates at 100 meters a minute,” he warned.

Buettner stressed the importance of campfire safety this season, noting that an ember from a fire or even a spark from a vehicle’s muffler could easily start a fire in dry weather.

While the rainfall will improve conditions for a while, Buettner said there’s still a long wildfire season ahead.

“I don’t have that sense of urgency this season as I did last season,” Buettner said. “(But) that doesn’t mean that in June and July we can’t be right back where we were last year.”