'They need to be extremely careful': Province reminds public of fire risks before long weekend

With the long weekend just around the corner, the province is reminding people to avoid any activities that could cause or spread a wildfire.

According to the province's website, there were currently 10 active wildfires burning in the province as of Thursday afternoon, with the majority in central and northern Saskatchewan.

Three of those fires were contained, while five were being assessed and two were not contained. Some of the fires prompted evacuation advisories.

• Province issues provincial park fire ban for most of Saskatchewan

• Elders evacuated from Waterhen Lake First Nation due to wildfires

The province says cooler weather has helped control some of the fires, but Saskatchewan is still on a high-level alert and fire bans are in place south of the Churchill River to the U.S. border due to dry conditions.

"It may be inconvenient that you can't sit around the campfire, but the inconvenience that an unattended fire causes, what we've seen in the last few days, can be very significant and very dangerous," said Duane McKay, commissioner of Emergency Management and Fire Safety.

"We want people to be very fire-safe, also make sure that they're planning around not having campfires when there's a ban in place," he said.

Along with not having campfires, the province is urging people to be conscientious of activities that could lead to a wildfire, such as setting off fireworks or anything that creates sparks.  

"As long as a fire ban is in place, even though you had a sprinkle of rain or it seems a little cooler, the fire ban is in place because we're still trying to tell folks that it's highly volatile conditions and they need to be extremely careful," said Steve Roberts, executive director of the Wildfire Management Branch.

Rabbit Fire

The province is also helping Parks Canada with a wildfire that started near Rabbit Creek and has spread to the southern region of Prince Albert National Park.

The fire covers about 16,900 hectares, but Parks Canada said Thursday they had the fire about 30 per cent controlled and were expecting minimal growth over the next few days. 

As of Thursday afternoon, Parks Canada said there was minimal risk to the public and Prince Albert National Park was expected to be business as usual for the long weekend, with the exception of closures in the southwest part of the park.