Five fires hit Whitehorse

Forestry department firefighters teamed up with the Whitehorse fire department yesterday to battle several small brush fires which started near the city.

Keith Kepke, the director of fire control in the Yukon, said his teams fought five brush fires in the Whitehorse area. Kepke said the fires near the subdivisions of Hillcrest, Porter Creek and Riverdale, and at the dump and on McClintock Bay on Marsh Lake, are under investigation.

The department’s B26 water bombers and helicopters were used to put out the one on McClintock Bay, which Kepke said threatened a number of cabins.

The other fires were fought with helicopters and ground tanker units. The Whitehorse fire department also answered the calls in Porter Creek, Riverdale and Hillcrest. No private property damage or injuries were reported.

Kepke said the Riverdale and Hillcrest fires might have been started by children's campfires.

The Hillcrest fire was within 100 metres of the closest house on Sunset Drive North and in the area of a childrens' "fort". Nearby residents and children fought it with garden hoes and buckets before firefighters arrived.

Kepke said the dump fire was considered serious because for a while it threatened to spread to the bush around it.

Conditions around the Yukon are tinder dry, said Kepke, but "we've been holding our own."