Wildfire crews from outside Yukon join efforts in Dawson City

More structure protection equipment and people have been arriving in Dawson City, Yukon, this week to fight the region's wildfires.

As of Thursday morning, 75 wildfires were burning across the Yukon, with 29 of them around the Dawson City area.

Evacuation alerts that were issued last Friday remain in place for two areas around Dawson City. One is for the Dempster Highway cutoff and Henderson Corner, including properties along the North Klondike Highway between kilometres 693 and 673, which are being threatened by the Mount Leotta fire. 

The other is for West Dawson and Sunnydale and all properties along the Top of the World Highway between kilometres 1 and 36 as well, which are being threatened by the Quebec Creek fire. 

On Tuesday, a structure protection team from Alberta arrived in Dawson City to help local wildfire crews while fires continue to burn around the region.

"A lot of structural protection gear is now in place in a lot of these locations," said Paul Robitaille, a member of the local emergency control group. "We're seeing some fairly robust sprinkler systems set up on the west side of the river."

Robitaille said large pumps, hoses and portable water tanks have also been set up at various properties in areas under the evacuation alert.

Robitaille said more structural protection equipment is on the way as well, including heavy equipment.

While structural protection efforts are underway, Robitaille said officials will be conducting a neighborhood survey in areas under the evacuation alerts.

"The intention of that is to do some door-to-door knocking to get a sense as to the properties and who's home, who's not," Robitaille explained. "The officials that will be showing up will have some more information for anybody in those areas to give them the idea of how operations would happen if we were to take that initiative to evacuate."

Robitaille said the survey is just a precautionary measure and stressed that there is no need for anyone to evacuate yet.

'Feeling taken care of'

Cud Eastbound lives in a small log cabin in a highly dense forest area in West Dawson.

He said with no real road access to his home, he's already moved many of his important items into town. Eastbound said he's now focusing on protecting his property.

"With no road access, I've been putting up an 800-metre water line from the Top of the World Highway with a 2,500-litre tank," Eastbound said. "I've just been putting water in it and finding the holes that the bears have chewed and fixing those just so that it's less work for Wildland [Fire Management] to be able to service sprinklers to my property."

Eastbound is also a member of the town's municipal council. He said he's very grateful for the support from wildland fire fighters and officials from and outside of the territory.

He's placed a cooler full of ice, drinks and food as a sign of appreciation to those working hard to protect the area. He said it's there for people to sit, take a break and enjoy a cold drink. He said other West Dawson residents have also added their own snacks as a thank-you to crews.

"It's very impressive to see the amount of infrastructure that they have brought up from all over Canada to help our little community out," Eastbound said. "We all feel very well taken care of."

3 fires of concern 

In total, there are 29 active wildfires in the Klondike. Nine are under control or being held. According to the latest the Dawson regional wildfire update, crews have been able to get closer to the fires recently because precipitation has kept fire activity low.

The Quebec Creek fire is about nine kilometres from Upper West Dawson and has burned about 37 square kilometres of land. A structure protection plan is in place for Moosehide Village.

The Mount Leotta fire, which has burned about 72 square kilometres, reached the south side of the Klondike Highway between kilometres 667 and 675 but hasn't crossed it yet. Crews have put up a lot of structural protection along the highway.

The Rabbit Creek fire is still four kilometres from the highwya and has burned about 121 square kilometres.

Structural protection has been completed in the Benson Creek area and the Dempster Corner. On Thursday, crews were expected to continue the structural protection on farms north of the Klondike River.  

Roads are currently open in the Goldfields despite fires in the area.The Yukon government says miners should contact the Klondike Placer Miner's Association with any questions.