REGINA - Hundreds more people were expected to flee their homes on the weekend because of heavy, billowing smoke from several forest fires in northern Saskatchewan.
Provincial officials said late Friday afternoon that another 250 people were immediately being taken out of the northeastern community of Pelican Narrows, while 400 more residents of nearby Sandy Bay were to be evacuated Saturday.
The latest evacuations were expected to swell the total number of evacuees to 2,800.
The sudden influx of hundreds more people left provincial officials scrambling to find facilities to house them all in Saskatoon and Regina.
About 450 residents from both communities were to be spread between soccer and recreation facilities in Saskatoon and the University of Regina campus.
But by late Friday, officials were still trying to determine what other facilities in Regina might be able to house 200 others.
Rhonda Michaels, with Saskatchewan Environment, said a storm system that moved through the area Thursday night brought pockets of scattered showers instead of the heavy rain needed to help quench the flames near such communities as Deschambault Lake, Stony Rapids, Pelican Narrows, Sandy Bay and Uranium City.
While first crews have been quite successful in burning off brush and dousing areas around the northeastern communities of Deschambault Lake and Pelican Narrows, the weather was not being very co-operative in that part of the province, Michaels said Friday.
"We're predicting no rain on that fire today," she said. "There is the possibility of some Saturday ... We don't predict heavy winds on any of those fires, so smoke will continue to be a problem."
Before Friday's announcement that there would be hundreds more evacuees, Cathy Bulych, a spokeswoman for emergency social services, said one community housing over 900 evacuees was already bursting at the seams.
Hotels in Prince Albert, Sask., were full and roughly 150 people were sleeping on cots at the local college.
"If more people had to come out, we'll take them in either Saskatoon or Regina," Bulych said. "We still want people to be comfortable. We don't want people squished in like sardines."
The college was offering meals and activities for hundreds of others who were staying in local hotels or with family and friends.
Richard Kent, a spokesman for the Prince Albert Grand Council, said Friday about two dozen elders were being relocated from the college campus in Prince Albert to a lodge at the James Smith First Nation, about an hour's drive southeast of the city.
"Some of the elders are used to having baths instead of showers and they have the opportunity in there to do that. It's a little more comfortable," he said.
The Prince Albert Herald also reported the fires were forcing a delay in nominations for the Liberal candidate in the Desnethe-Nissinippi-Churchill River federal riding.
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