REGINA

Evacuation order lifted as forest fire threat to Stanley Mission eases

The Canadian Press Published Monday, May 26, 2014 1:25PM CST Last Updated Tuesday, May 27, 2014 2:28PM CST

Thick smoke and an approaching forest fire forced over 1,000 residents to be evacuated from Stanley Mission in northern Saskatchewan. The evacuation order was lifted Tuesday. (photo supplied by Tammy Cook-Searson)

Text:

STANLEY MISSION, Sask. -- About 1,000 people who had to leave a northern Saskatchewan aboriginal community because of a forest fire were returning home Tuesday.

An evacuation order for Stanley Mission was lifted because rain and backburns by firefighting crews stopped the blaze from advancing.

Colin King, deputy emergency management commissioner, said people with their own vehicles started going home Monday night.

King said evacuees in shelters were being bused back Tuesday and residents at higher risk -- such as elders, pregnant women, young children and anyone with respiratory problems -- were to go home Wednesday.

The evacuation was ordered on the weekend because the fire threatened power lines and the only road into the community.

Steve Roberts, the province's executive director of wildfire management, said crews were still working on the fire, but sprinklers that had been placed around Stanley Mission were being removed because the risk is lower.