Two people are dead and another person is in critical condition in a Saskatoon hospital after a fiery crash Wednesday near Aberdeen.

The crash happened late afternoon east of Saskatoon. RCMP say it involved a semi truck and a half-ton. It was severe enough that it forced closure of Highway 41 for several hours. It has since reopened.

RCMP are still piecing together exactly what happened.

A tractor-trailer travelling north and a F-550 truck travelling south collided, causing the highway to be blocked. Visibility was poor at the time of the collision and road conditions were icy, RCMP said in a news release.

The two occupants of the F-550 truck were air-lifted to hospital in Saskatoon. The 52-year-old male driver died from injuries in hospital. The 52-year-old male passenger remains in hospital with serious injuries.

The lone occupant of the tractor-trailer, a 39-year-old man, was declared dead at the scene.

Tracey Grand'Maison lives in Aberdeen and drove past the scene on her way back from Saskatoon. She says that road conditions at the time were treacherous.

"When we went in [to Saskatoon] around 11 in the morning there were a few icy spots on the highway, a few that were a half a kilometre long," she said.

"Coming back, there was only a couple spots that were clear to drive on."

Traffic slowed as emergency crews worked the scene. Grand'Maison says that she knew it was bad when she saw the two trucks.

"Someone's family is definitely going through ... things were turned upside down yesterday. All of our prayers go out to them."