Wendell and Riva Sewap pass the time on Wednesday afternoon in a Saskatoon parking lot.
They arrived late Tuesday night on a school bus after a six-hour trip, evacuating their home in Pelican Narrows.
READ MORE: Pelican Narrows, Sask. under general evacuation order over wildfire concerns
“It’s not good. The fire is going to turn bigger and everybody is stuck in Pelican still and I hope everyone in Pelican is OK,” Wendell said.
There are currently three large uncontained wildfires burning near Pelican Narrows:
- Granite fire: 14 kilometres from Pelican Narrows, three kilometres from Jan Lake, less than two kilometres from Birch Portage and burning over 50,000 hectres.
- Preston fire: the fire moved three kilometres from Pelican Narrows and burning around 13,000 hectres.
- Wilkin fire: the fire is burning 16 kilometres south of Pelican Narrows and burning approximately 6,000 hectres.
“The sun was going red and it was real smoky and I was having a hard time breathing, so I just had to leave,” Riva said.
On Tuesday evening, an evacuation was ordered by the chief and council of Peter Ballantyne Cree Nation for all Pelican Narrow community members. The general evacuation comes after 150 health priority residents were evacuated to Saskatoon, along with at least 300 family members.
On Wednesday, the Red Cross said the Henk Ruys Soccer Centre is nearing capacity.
“The elders of the community and people with health issues, and things like that can go and stay in hotels. That’s a decision made by our health professionals in consultation with the folks generally. The rest generally stay here or go stay with family and friends,” said Sandra MacArthur, the Red Cross shelter manager of the soccer centre.
According to officials, almost all of the provincial fire resources are currently focused on the fires around Pelican Narrows.
Fire crews are “doing a good job to protect the community from direct threat of fire. The biggest issue which is causing the evacuations is the heavy smoke,” Duane McKay, commissioner of emergency management and fire safety, said.
It is anticipated another 1100 people will leave Pelican Narrows, with 600 going to to hotels in Prince Albert and the other 500 to Saskatoon.
READ MORE: More Joe Rich residents return home
Officials said the timing has been challenging to find available centres.
“This is a very late event in the fire season and most of the congregate facilities that we use are schools or some sort of an educational facility and school is going back, so they need their facility. We are looking across the resource list across the province,” said Deanna Valentine, the provincial coordinator of Emergency Social Services.
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