FIRE THREATENS DEMPSTER-AREA COMMUNITY

By Sarah Davison

Ten residents of North Fork, about 30 kilometres up the Dempster Highway, left their homes Sunday night as a forest fire continues to threaten their small community. The 1,300-hectare blaze is one of two forest fires along the Dempster, which has been closed until further notice.

The fire threatening North Fork is burning about five kilometres up the Dempster from the Dempster Cutoff, where the highway meets the North Klondike Highway. It has already jumped the road once.

"It's very erratic fire behavior," said Kelvin Leary, the duty officer for the federal forestry branch in Dawson City.

The Klondike River Lodge, at the junction of the Dempster and Klondike Highways, remain open and unthreatened, said Dave Thomson of the federal government this morning.

There is a lot of smoke in the area, he added.

Seven air tankers, two spotter planes, six helicopters, four Cats and 100 firefighters, including one crew from British Columbia, are working on the two blazes.

People in North Fork left at 8 pm Sunday, and have not yet been allowed to return home.

"It'll be a couple more days, depending on the weather or the fire," said Leary. "We haven’t secured the lines yet."

The "line" is a bulldozed strip, about the width of a road, from which all fuels for the forest fire, such as trees and brush, have been removed.

Leary said this fire has already jumped the line once.

It is now burning closer than two kilometres from the house in North Fork but no building have been destroyed.

The Dempster fire, known as fire number 21, is the latest in the series of forest fires plaguing the territory in one of the worst years for blazes in recent history.

There are 113 forest fires burning at last count, more than twice the usual number, and many more than the 64 recorded on this date in 1986.

There are 28 forest fires burning in the Dawson District alone. Several have contained, and two are being fought.

"All are being fought on the priority of protecting life and property," the forest service indicated.