Saskatchewan Public Needs Better Wildfire Reporting

Wildland fire season is upon us early this year, and with a vengeance. Just walk in the woods or even along roadsides in the province and the crunch of dry vegetation under your feet is unnerving. 

Even more unnerving is the knowledge that the people of Saskatchewan will be in the dark throughout the wildland fire season. 



With nothing but cryptic data and vague fire maps offered to us by the Province of Saskatchewan Wildfire Management branches, it almost seems to be a "need to know" basis. 

The media is also cryptic and, why they offer so little and such generalized information, is unclear. Maybe they are just too lazy to dig for details, or maybe they are, like the residents of Saskatchewan, not among the ones that "need to know". 

The residents of Saskatchewan are given so little information that every year we turn to social media for anything we can find. Needless to say that is about the most unreliable source of updates to have to rely on. 

First hand reports from friends, neighbours and total strangers can be accurate and helpful, however they can also be misleading. A good example of that is how claims of damage done by a wildfire, such as homes lost, size of the fire, can be quickly exaggerated and even made up. 

Once a post with misinformation is made, no one reads and verifies it, they just share it and the post takes on a life of it's own, much like the wildfires themselves. 

A better system of updates is not impossible, in fact it's so doable that BC, Alberta and Manitoba have extensive fire updates with specific details of fires, right down to GPS co-ordinates for each fire. 

Take a look at samples of what the other three western provinces offer their residents. 

BC Wildfire Service has an entire website devoted to provide extensive, details information on anything and everything to do with wildfires in their province. 

There is so much information on their website it would take your hours just to read all that they provide. Everything you could possibly want or need to know about fires in British Columbia is there, right down to how many pieces of equipment are on each fire and extensive details about fire bans and restrictions for each area. You can follow them on Facebook, Twitter & subscribe to the Province's YouTube channel. They even have a message board that you can use to leave a message for the firefighters battling to keep you safe! If you mention a firefighter by name, that person can search and see all the messages to them from their friends and family. How cool is that? 

Alberta Wildfire also has a dedicated website with an amazing amount of information.

AB Wildfire also provides updates to the public on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and YouTube. Hell, they even have a mobile app! 
Again, everything you could possibly need to know about wildfires, fire bans or anything else related to the fires is there. 

While Manitoba Wildfire's website isn't as state of the art as BC and Alberta's is, they still manage to provide cold hard facts about the fire situations in their province. 

Clearly they didn't spend as much as the other two, but they still have a very valuable, information packed site with plenty of updates their residents deserve. They offer links to the Government of Manitoba's Facebook, Twitter and YouTube accounts that you can follow to get up to the minute updates. 

They offer fire bulletins, packed with information, these bulletins get shared on their Facebook and Twitter accounts, so you can get these updates as soon as they are posted. 
Perhaps the most useful feature is their interactive map for Current Municipal Burning Restrictions. You can look up any RM or community in Manitoba and see if there are burning restrictions and where the boundaries are. 

Then we have Saskatchewan. Their webpage looks like it hasn't had an upgrade since the 1990's. The information is pretty much non existent. 

No one stop reference to fire bans around the province. Nope, instead they give you these words of wisdom; "Contact your local government authority or fire department for information on fire bans or burning restrictions." 
Gosh, thanks, I never would have thought of that.

Updates on the actual fires are not provided. Generalized maps showing vague locations of past and present fires with the only status being an icon defined in a legend as Not Contained, Ongoing Assessment, Protecting Values, Contained or Out. 
You cannot find specific locations of each fire like the others offer. You cannot find out how many hectares in size a particular fire has grown to, like the others offer. 

I can't help but wonder how much time the fire bases and other agencies waste fielding inquiries from people just trying to find out whats going on in their area and in other areas where they have family and friends. I also wonder how many people would stay out of the way instead of feeling like if they want to know what's happening they need to go right to the front lines. 

So if I have missed anything, if there is some secret website for SK wildfires that I haven't found, or if they do have a Facebook, Twitter, Instagram or YouTube account, please feel free to let me know! 

Until such time as we have a better system, you can join the Facebook & Google+ Groups for Saskatchewan Wildfire News, who's purpose is to join together as a community and keep each other up to date. There we can share SK wildfire news with each other. News articles, official reports, personal reports from people on the front lines are welcome. 

Facebook - Saskatchewan Wildfire News

Google+ - SK Wildfires 2016