Nicolle Fire near Buffalo Pound Lake sees 3 fire departments respond

An uncontrolled wildfire near Buffalo Pound Lake was extinguished following the efforts of several fire departments from across the Regina area.

Firefighters from Lumsden, Bethune and Moose Jaw were dispatched at around 4 p.m. Saturday to fight the blaze in the Nicolle Flats area – near the Qu’Appelle and Moose Jaw Rivers.

“I went over there to check it out and sure enough, there was a fire,” park ranger William Tipper told CTV News. “I got over there and you could see the fire from quite a ways away.”

Tipper was the first to assess the “Nicolle Fire” as the park ranger on duty.

After calling the closest fire department, he and his co-workers evacuated all of the high risk areas surrounding the flames.

“The size of the fire was definitely an irregularity,” he added.

“This is the first year that I’ve had a fire this size. I was working last year as well and we didn’t have a fire ban at all.”

The fire was listed as the province’s sole uncontrolled wildfire Sunday morning before being re-designated to “contained” at around noon by the Saskatchewan Public Safety Agency (SPSA).

The risk is now gone for campers in the area. However, one access road in the park remains closed.

An investigation is underway to determine how the blaze started.

According to the SPSA, there are currently 49 active wildfires in the province.

• Download the CTV News app to get breaking news alerts from across Saskatchewan sent to your device

Eight are described as contained, 29 are under assessment while protecting property is the focus of the remaining 12.

The vast majority of the province remains under a special air quality statement – extending from Estevan to Lake Athabasca.

The Air Quality Health Index (AQHI) values for Saskatchewan’s two major cities – Regina and Saskatoon – are forecasted as "high risk" or nine and eight respectively.

With files from CTV News' Hallee Mandryk.