‘The fire is a monster’: P.A. mayor says city at mercy of the weather as blaze rages

By Glenn Hicks

Calling it a “monster” of a fire, the mayor of Prince Albert says he cannot say with any certainty how the uncontained blaze on the northeast edge of the city will play out in the coming days.

Speaking on a media call Monday evening, Greg Dionne called on the public to “pray for our people” and for the many crew and emergency personnel who would be working through the night and in the days to come to try to tackle the blaze.

He also called on the public to stay away from the fire zone because the high winds could change at any moment and “we’ve had no loss of life” and he wants to keep it that way.

Dionne said Monday afternoon’s blaze started in the RM of Buckland but high winds brought it across city boundaries. There is currently no known cause.

Asked what his confidence level was for the fire to be contained, Dionne said: “It’s a monster, the winds are fanning it. It’s making its own wind tunnels and it’s growing …

“We are sprinkling as many houses as we can but that’s not a guarantee we’ll stop it because it’s such a size.”

He estimated that size at around 2.5 kilometres by 2.5 kilometres.

When asked about a scale, or level of one to 10 in danger, Dionne labelled it “an eight.”

He said while the wind direction had been taking the fire away from the city on Monday, that could all change very quickly with more gusting winds expected Tuesday.

“If the wind (direction) changes, we could be in for serious trouble,” he added.

Dionne said 95 per cent of the blaze was in a wooded area, with only five per cent in acreages. There was no information on possible damage to the property.

He added the Nisbet Forest had an abundance of deadwood on the ground and figured a fire like this was never a matter of if but when.

“We’re bringing in heavy equipment but we’re at the mercy of the weather. At this point it (the fire) is in control and so is the weather,” he explained.

Dionne said while the abilities of Saskatchewan’s firefighters are well known, the blaze “is a monster and it’s getting bigger.”