Firefighters Gain Headway on Bear Creek Wildfire

Monday, 3 June 2019 12:19

Yukon Wildland Fire Management says firefighters are making headway on the 650-hectare Bear Creek forest fire burning near Haines Junction.

Bear Creek Wildfire

Wildland Fire Information Officer Mike Fancie says firefighters are making headway on the 650-hectare Bear Creek forest fire burning near Haines Junction.

In a statement, Fancie says a fire guard has been constructed along the fires western flank to help secure and expand water access around the outer and northern portions of the fire.

Fancie says the size of the wildfire has remain unchanged since last week.

"Out here in Haines Junction, the fire did not make any significant changes from its situation on Friday. What that means for us is that it's roughly in the same place and any spread there's been has been extremely limited. It's been an opportunity for us to make some real progress."

Fancie says with more firefighters now, it's been also easier to contain the blazes.

"On Friday, we received extra support in the form of 60 wildland firefighters and an incident management team. We deployed them on Saturday and got the ball rolling out a more robust response to this fire."

Other notable fires include the late Swamp Creek Fire burning on the Alaskan/ Yukon border and the Toobally Lakes fire burning at almost 13,000 hectares in southeastern Yukon.

Yukon First Nations Wildfire Deploys Crew

In other fire news, Yukon First Nations Wildfire CEO Chad Thomas says dozens of his wildfire crew were also part of the deployment to fight the Bear Creek Wildfire as well.

Chad says his crew, which are approximately 80% First Nations themselves, received the call to be dispatched late last week.

"I currently have over 30 personnel on the Bear Creek incident and I have another twenty ready to go. We found out about the call late last Wednesday and then on Friday our crews showed up for a briefing. They were then sent out Friday evening and they've been out fighting the fire for a couple days now."

Chad says more First Nation firefighters are also ready to be dispatched if need be.

"I have my Skookum Unit Crew that's ready to be called up at anytime. We've been in negotiations talking with Yukon Government to get more of our folks out on the fireline. We hope we can get our First Nations partners and staff, like the the Champagne and Aishihik First Nation, to get them out on the fire."

Yukon First Nation is made up of one First Nation government, two community corporations and five development corporations. They employ firefighters from every Yukon First Nation community in the territory.

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