Photo: Image of the smoke from the northern wildfires. Members of the Redvers Volunteer Fire Department traveled 750km north to assist in battling the blaze
Ryan Kiedrowski
Local Journalism Initiative Reporter
The World-Spectator
A group of firefighters from the Redvers Fire and Rescue travelled 750 km north to assist in the battle against the massive wildfires that devastated communities throughout the month of June. Fire Chief Brad Hutton, Deputy Chief Doug Bennett, plus firefighters Brendan Gaudet and Chance Joanette answered the call, pitching in equipment and human resources from May 31 to June 10.
“At first, we were on property control, and then we ended up putting out fires around little areas and villages, attacking forest fires,” Hutton explained. “We took our tanker truck up—we have a 2,000-gallon tanker truck—so we did lots of nursing ponds, running sprinkler systems to maintain keeping buildings cool. We did that for the first couple of days intensely.”
The Redvers firefighters began their duties in Weyakwin, then ventured to other areas such as Nelson Bay, Ramsey Bay, Malanosa, Timber Bay, and various areas along Montreal Lake.
“The forest fires were burning real hard and hot, but you didn’t see quite as much flame over top of the trees, as we have noticed before, but the amount of hectares that were burnt was huge,” Hutton recalled. “Sometimes, going down cut lines and trails, some of the roads we went down, it was like driving in like a blizzard or in extremely foggy conditions. But when you’re up close, kind of right in the area where the fires are burning, the heat and the smoke pretty much goes up high and for the most part, it’s a little cleaner air down below than what you would think it is. Obviously, we wore masks because there’s definitely stuff burning. The other thing too that we had to be cautious of was of lots of wildlife being displaced, we saw numerous amounts of bears.”
Helicopters and small spray bombers dropping water from above was also a common sight. While firefighters do train constantly for the unexpected, fighting a forest fire brought a whole different strategy.
“It’s an entirely different plan of attack, and a lot of times it’s more a case of just control and slow it down, because you’re not really going to get it out, for the most part,” Hutton said. “They rely on the cut lines and bulldozers to stop it, but you’re not 100 per cent getting the fire out. It’s more just controlling it so it doesn’t carry on into villages and towns.”
The number of wildfires has been well above the five year average in Saskatchewan with 267 documented this year as compared to average of 166. More than $4 million has been given directly to residents in the areas affected, plus the provincial government is distributing $500 in financial assistance to individuals impacted. As of June 24, the Canadian Red Cross has also raised $2.5 million for their 2025 Saskatchewan Wildfires Appeal, which does not include the matching federal dollars for donations made between May 30 to June 29.
Mixed emotions
Uncontrolled wildfires are a dangerous situation, but Hutton said it felt good to be able to help.
“I do enjoy it because I’m that kind of a person that likes helping people,” he said. “But it’s not a good sight. Like I said, we didn’t run into any loss of life or anything, just loss of properties and then obviously, the good side of it is all the sprinklers and stuff we maintained and operated—a lot of properties were saved.”
So how did a small crew from Redvers end up fighting forest fires hundreds of kilometres away in northern Saskatchewan? According to Hutton, it was an answer to a call.
“The SPSA (Saskatchewan Public Safety Agency) did put a call out, there were some emails that went out asking and requesting if you had equipment, what you had for equipment, what you had for manpower,” he explained. “Then you basically applied by an email stating what you had. We put that we had a tanker truck and two members. I did work a little bit with the Carlyle Fire Chief as well, they said they’d take their wildland truck, so we put it together as a package—go with a tanker and a wildland truck with four members between the two departments.”
The pumpers and smaller trucks were much sought after, with the key part of the operation being how exactly they are utilized.
“There’s demand for little trucks to get in and out, and then tanker trucks are always a value to get lots of volume to where they need it,” Hutton said. “You started looking at how they operate, with the bulldozers and flattening down like swaths of trees to put fire breaks up. Sometimes they’d send the little wildland trucks down there. You’re definitely not going down there with a 2,000 gallon tank or truck. You’d never get in or out of there with the sand up there.”
Another hazard to be ever-mindful of is falling trees as the smouldering trunks in the soft soil can easily give way to gravity.
“The trees don’t root real deep either, so you got to be pretty cautious, too, because it’s smouldering and burning in the bottom the tree stumps,” Hutton said. “Often, there will just be random trees tipping over and falling over, so they’re a concern, too. You always had to be cautious. If there was any wind at all, you really didn’t want to be in the forest because there’s toppling trees everywhere. Even when you look down cut lines and alongside of the road, lots of times there will be trees that just randomly fall over. The bottoms will burn out and they just topple over.”
Home safe
The firefighters from Redvers went up in groups of two, switching out partway through the 11 long days, ranging from 12 to 19 hours. In total, they posted 146 hours, but also came home with new insights. One idea in particular was about obtaining a protective gel the crew prepared and used to slow down the fires.
“It was a gel protective coating we sprayed on power poles at properties so they were more flame retardant,” Hutton explained. “They couldn’t burn or heat up as quick. We were discussing getting some of that gel to have at our department because say you have a house fire in Redvers, you could be mixing that up in your little wildland truck and spray the house down beside that would help prevent siding and shingles from melting.”
Redvers Fire and Rescue is also in the midst of fundraising for a new truck, anticipated to arrive in the first quarter of 2026.
“The new truck is going to be a 2026 model,” Hutton said. “They did say 18 month delivery, so I think they’re going to be about on track with their 18 month delivery.”