Birch Narrows Dene Nation starts evacuation due to nearby wildfire

An evacuation order is in effect in Birch Narrows Dene Nation and the neighbouring community of Turnor Lake, about 577 kilometres northwest of Saskatoon.

"It is really smoky. The sky is grey, pretty gloomy weather. I would say that's because of the smoke from the fire that's really close by," Birch Narrows Dene Nation Chief Jonathon Sylvestre told CBC News in an interview Friday afternoon.

"There is no sun at the moment. The smoke is covering the whole sky."

Sylvestre said the local emergency management team is preparing to evacuate all of Birch Narrows and Turnor Lake. Community members are coming to the local clinic, filling out forms and heading toward Lloydminster and Cold Lake.

He said that as of Friday afternoon, the fire was about four kilometres away from the community and 100 metres from the fire break line.

The hope is to get the majority of the 900 people out by Friday night.

"More of a proactive approach than a reactive… prepared for people to leave because we don't know what the weather is going to bring," Sylvestre said.

"If the wind picks up, we could be in danger because we only have a one way road coming in and out. So, we don't want to put our members' lives at jeopardy by having the roads closed."

Beyond the looming danger of the fire, Sylvestre said the smoke is an added health risk.

"We know a lot of our community members are concerned and worried, but we're doing what we can to do our best to make sure everybody's protected and safe."

'Big wall of red fire'

Rebecca Lemaigre, the program manager of the Turnor Lake and Birch Narrows Community Food Centre, spent her Friday afternoon buying $1,200 worth of chicken and $500 worth of pizzas to ensure the evacuees "don't get hungry on the bus and get to their destination safely".

Lemaigre said they had already been monitoring the encroaching fire for roughly three weeks when the flames got within 20 kilometres away.

"That put our community in complete danger. You can imagine families running around seeing this big wall of red fire coming toward our community," she said.

"But they kept telling us the fire is OK, it's not gonna come any closer. But our elders kept saying well, it's coming, it's coming. The winds changed toward [us] as it's coming and sure enough, it came."

She said the government should be more proactive than reactive and be better prepared. 

"What if the wall of fire came through last night? What if the wind came through? What would have happened to us? We would be sitting there like ducks cooked."

She said it has become "almost an every year thing."

"It's almost every year we're evacuated. So this year, once again they fell short. There's no equipment, there's not enough. Everybody's fighting fires all over the place. They're [using] all the equipment in Sandy Bay," she said.

"They'd have a lot of money saved if they would have tackled that fire right from the beginning."

CBC News has reached out to the Saskatchewan Public Safety Agency for more details.

Earlier this week, the Peter Ballantyne Cree Nation also evacuated its remote northern community of Sandy Bay, Sask., because of a wildfire in the area.