A fire inside the water treatment plant of the Yellow Quill First Nation has the reserve scrambling for alternate supplies.

The reserve is home to about 1,000 people and is located in the Rose Valley area, about 200 kilometres east of Saskatoon.

Chief Larry Cachene told CBC News on Saturday that a band member spotted smoke coming from the plant early in the morning and called police.

The fire was put out and Cachene said technicians have spent the day trying to figure out the extent of the damage.

"We have our technical staff looking at it right now," Cachene said Saturday afternoon. He added other experts had been called in to have a look to "see if there's any chance of reviving the system that's there."

The chief was on the road, hurrying back to the reserve following meetings in Regina.

He said early indications do not point to foul play because the building was properly locked up at the time of the fire.

"The plant is controlled by a computer system," he said.

Supply options being worked out

Cachene said the band is also preparing options to supply water to residents.

"We do have a booster station on the south end of the reserve that is, right now, supplying water to our southern part of the community: the school, the band office and we have our [housing] subdivision there," he said. "So there is water there, but I don't know how long that's going to be there."

"We may be able to push that water to all our homes," he said.

Cachene said the band will also need to secure some sort of interim supply of water.

The potential loss of the treatment plant would be a major blow to the reserve.

"It's extremely important. It's a state-of-the-art plant," Cachene said.

Residents used to boil water

Yellow Quill had endured what Cachene described as a "long struggle" trying to get a proper water supply established. For years the reserve was under continuous boil water orders.

The new plant was finally up and running in 2004.

"The system has been running fine," he said. "It cleans the water so well that we need to add nutrients, such as calcium, back into the end product."

Cachene said band leaders would be meeting Saturday to evaluate options and that more information on their plans for water would be available that evening or on Sunday.

For eight years, until the new plant was opened, residents had to boil water for drinking or use bottled water.

The treatment plant cost $6 million.