The province has imposed open fire bans in seven provincial parks, and 87 municipalities have fire bans in place in Saskatchewan.
There is also a wide-sweeping ban in Northern districts, but it covers only unincorporated communities.
The deputy commissioner of emergency management, Mieka Cleary, clarified where the ban applies.
“The fire ban affects only organized but unincorporated communities within the district,” she said. “It includes fourteen resort subdivisions, eleven settlements, and five subdivisions. The fire ban does not apply to incorporated northern municipalities or First Nations communities.”
First Nations and incorporated northern municipalities can impose their own fire bans if they so choose.
Cleary also says Saskatchewan is providing three administrative staff to help out at the Alberta emergency management command centre.
“So like we have here, we have specific roles in planning, in operations and logistics that type of thing,” she said. “So they have requested expertise in planning and operation to go and assist and augment some of their staff that are currently in there.”
There are only seven fires burning in Saskatchewan right now and all of them are under control. However the fire risk remains extreme. So far this year there has been 117 fires and almost all of them have been caused by humans.
Environment Canada has issued several air quality health alerts for north-west, and west-central Saskatchewan including the city of Saskatoon.
Smoke from Alberta wildfires is causing the problem. The weather has cooled, but that has only pushed the smoke closer to the ground making the situation worse.
This is the second day the areas have been affected by the smoke.
Even Regina is expected to experience smoky conditions today.