Updated at 11:19 MT, June 2, 2011
The stranded residents at the northern Saskatchewan town of Wollaston Lake that we told you about yesterday were evacuated Wednesday night by three C-130 airplanes and four Griffon helicopters. A wildfire burned up to the edges of the town, threatening the residents who were unable to evacuate since there was no permanent road access and smoke from the fire was grounding aircraft trying to fly into the small airport nearby. And a lake where a ferry runs in the summer still has ice on it. The winter ice roads which provide the only ground access to the community have turned to slush and will not be usable again until next winter.
Wednesday night the aircraft were able to make it through the smoke and began landing at the airport at 9:45 CST. Over the next few hours about 630 people flew out to communities farther south in Saskatchewan. The C-130s could carry about 96 passengers and the helicopters six to ten people each. The residents had been assembled in the community’s two schools waiting for the air to clear so that the military aircraft could land.
By Wednesday morning the fire had grown to about 500 hectares (1,235 acres) and was close to the airport, again making it difficult for aircraft to land. Approximately 65 residents still remained in the town awaiting evacuation as of Wednesday morning.
Steve Roberts, the executive director of wildfire management for the province, explained one of the issues facing firefighters:
The ground’s frozen. We’ve had a hot, dry spell up there – no rain. It dries out all the vegetation and all the trees and they cannot absorb water through the roots because the ground is still too cold, too frozen.
“A CL-215 or CL-415 drops on the Wollaston Lake fire”
It is a CL-215, with radial engines.