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Fire Ban Lifted Across Yukon

Tuesday, 16 July 2019 15:50

Kluane National Park remains under a fire ban in the territory. (Photo courtesy of Government of Canada)

Yukon Wildland Fire Management Information personnel say the Yukon government has lifted a fire ban across all fire management areas in the territory.

Yukon Wildland Fire Management Information Officer Mike Fancie says the Yukon government has lifted a fire ban across all fire management areas in the territory.  Fancie says a weekend of rainfall and a forecasted downturn in weather conditions helped in reducing the fire danger for most of the Yukon.  

Despite the change in weather,  there are 43 active wildfires burning in the territory according to the Yukon Fire Map.

Fancie says there were  two new wildfire starts that were reported in the territory yesterday.

"Yesterday, two new wildfires were reported in the Yukon. One was located in a wilderness zone near Kathleen Lake northeast of Mayo. The wildfire is currently ten hectares in size and is being observed. Meanwhile, another wildfire was observed from the Dawson Fire Centre. Our crews watched the lightning strike and then saw smoke come up from the trees. We are working on that fire today. We estimate it is 0.1 hectares in size."

Fancy  says crews continue to suppress the 107,000-hectare Pigue Creek Wildfire and the 14,400-hectare Hunker Summit wildfire southeast of Dawson City. He advises people to check Yukon 511 before going out and traveling on Yukon roads. 

Fancie says crews are also keeping an eye out for a weather system that could bring scattered showers and thundershowers to much of the Yukon throughout today.

In total, 72 fires have burned almost 204,000 hectares so far this year in the Yukon. Approximately 4-in-10 wildfires this year in the territory have been human-caused.

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