Periodic hot, dry summers in the past posed threat of forest fires to Yukon communities. One of them, Faro, was actually wiped out in 1969.

It was the year the town was being built, a joint venture of the Cyprus Anvil Mining Corp. and the federal government. Lightning struck in June 13, 1969, when temperatures of 90-plus Fahrenheit were recorded throughout the territory.

A forest fire descended on the town site, wiping out the construction camp and the skeletal houses. Builders retreated across the Pelly River, and no one was hurt. But, the next day, Faro was a blackened ruin.

That same day, June 14, there were more than 100 fires burning in the Yukon. One of them, 240 kilometres down the Pelly River at the North Klondike Highway community of Pelly Crossing, encircled the town.

Women and children were sent to safety. A handful of villagers, including about eight forestry employees with one operating helicopter, fought the fire to a standstill and saved the community. The fire break they cut and the green poplar belt are still visible today.

The forests of Porter Creek were burning that weekend, too. The ominous black column of smoke was spotted before noon Friday, and by afternoon, the fire was closing in on houses and businesses. The Alaska Highway between downtown Whitehorse and the suburb took on the appearance of a siege as a small army of bulldozers driven by volunteers, rattled to the scene.

As understaffed forestry corps, with ranks already spread throughout the rest of the territory, tried to direct the fire fighting. They were almost defeated, but by the end of the day, the citizens of Porter Creek and Whitehorse had gotten the fire under control, and the worst was over.

Whitehorse has had narrow escapes before. The closest in recent times was in 1958, when forest fires raged throughout the Yukon and in the southern part of the territory.

The Takhini Hot Springs area was burned out, and the fire moved toward Whitehorse. Fanned by strong winds, it jumped the Yukon River and burned south toward the then-new area of Riverdale. Day after day, it got closer, waned, then started up again. In downtown Whitehorse, ashes fell on the cars, and there was talk of vacating patients from the hospital. The radio station appealed for volunteers, but it was an unequal fight. In the end, it was a lucky rainstorm that put out the fires.

"She was a big one, that one—much, much bigger than the one this time," Fred Blaker said in an interview Friday. He worked for the Whitehorse fire department for 40 years, and was chief when he retired two years ago.

"That one was a couple hundred square miles, and it burned over a month… There was a lot of smoke over the city… just like a big blanket… like the oil fields in Iraq, that’s about the closest I can describe. She was really black here."

While the 1958 fire was 20 times the size of the Crestview blaze, he said, there were fewer people around to worry about it.

"The town was much smaller back then; we didn’t have the scope… but the territorial government and the City of Whitehorse made plans to evacuate people by train and by car."

"In those days, we didn’t have water bombers… They brought in pumps and bulldozers and man-power –lots of manpower. There 3was no shortage of people to work on it… a couple hundred at least `cause she ran a long way."

Now, forestry fire fighting programs have been beefed up and there are standby personnel and equipment ready to fly to the scene of fires at a moment’s notice.

But even so, whenever the long hot days of summer are upon us, and the forests and the air are bone-dry, Yukoners get uneasy, and start looking for that telltale haze of smoke… There’s a fire burning somewhere!