We'll be there, Keenan promises fire victims

by CHUCK TOBIN  Star Reporter

BURWASH LANDING – Nothing but ash remains of the three homes destroyed two days ago by the Burwash Landing wildfire.

Side by side, they stood on the edge of the Kluane Lake community, closest to the approaching inferno that ran eight kilometres toward the town Sunday, engulfing an estimated 3,000 hectares – and the houses.

Bob Johnson, chief of the Kluane First Nation, had insurance on his home but home owner Tim Cant reportedly did not. It's not known whether the third home was insured by owner Henry Miller.

Johnson told reporters who were flown to Burwash Monday with a group of government officials that he's not sure how the insurance company will view the destruction by the forest fire.

But for the time being, his focus is not on what lay behind the community but what lay ahead.

"I guess the message is we are holding our own in Burwash and the fire is still a threat to Burwash, and we are still in a state of evacuation," the chief said during a briefing at around 5 p.m.

"We got the power back here and the community members that are here are busy fighting fire and keeping an eye on things around here."

Johnson said he expected it would be at least another 48 hours before evacuees were allowed to return to their homes. Sixty of the community's 79 residents were moved out.

In response to the fire, officially called Haines Junction number three, the Yukon government invoked a state of emergency, the first such declaration since the government took over from Ottawa the responsibility for the Emergency Measures Act in the early 1980s.

The Alaska Highway remains closed today between 10 a.m. and 7 p.m., the peak burning period. But government staff are piloting vehicles through the fire zone if conditions permit.

Eric Magnuson, coordinator of the territory's Emergency Measures Organization, reiterated this morning his request that motorists put off travel to the area during the peak burning period if possible.

All traffic backed up at the highway barricades north and south of the fire zone was moved through by 11 p.m. Monday, Magnuson said.

To assist with structural protection, approximately 20 firefighters from community fire departments around the territory were moved to Burwash with the equipment Saturday and Sunday. As of this morning, there were 46 Yukon forest firefighters on the scene, as well as 18 firefighters flown in from B.C.

A four-member fire management team from B.C. also arrived in Burwash this morning.

Augmenting the effort were: five light and medium helicopters; eight bulldozers building a fire line; a skidder; three water tanker trucks; and a myriad of other emergency response gear brought into the community from the other fire departments.

Gord Dumas, head of fire management for the federal Northern Affairs department, said the focus remains on stabilizing lines of protection around the community and mopping up hotspots within it.

There's no major weather relief in sight and generally, conditions are expected to remain relatively hot and dry, Dumas said this morning.

Fire officials report the fire started Saturday at the local dump, located five kilometres south of town. While it was suggested Saturday that the elderly and the children should be moved from town as a precaution, the official evacuation order was made by the RCMP at 2 p.m. Sunday.

Police vehicles had already been deployed to Burwash from Haines Junction to assist with security. They moved through the community with their sirens on to sound the evacuation.

Originally, residents were told the town's siren would signal the beginning of the evacuation if required. But when the raging fire knocked out the electricity, residents were told to listen and watch for police vehicles moving through the community.

RCMP Cpl. Larry Kavanagh said the official evacuation began at 2 p.m. Sunday.

"Overall, it was a very smooth evacuation," Kavanagh said Monday afternoon while leading a community tour of government officials and the media. "I think it is a credit to the community. They knew the seriousness of the fire."

Kavanagh pointed out several fire fronts where crews literally battled walls of flames to protect significant community structures, like the museum, the Catholic church and others.

"There is no doubt if crews were not working on these buildings like they were, these buildings would no longer be standing here today,' the officer said.

At one point, while bulldozers and fire fighters struggled to build a line of protection around the Duke River Trading Post, they faced an immense wall of fire. Smoke was so thick, said Kavanagh, the visibility was down to no more than half a metre.

And shortly before crews were forced to abandon the line, the officer pulled up in his police car and got out but was immediately forced back inside the vehicle by the intense heat.

Once the smoke cleared, a couple of hours later, however, crews saw that the trading post remained standing, though nothing remained of a road-side ice cream business not more than 30 metres from the main structure.

Community Services Minister Dave Keenan declined Monday to discuss the possibility of financial assistance to homeowners who've lost property. While the emergency act provides for that latitude, any assistance would ultimately be a decision by cabinet, Keenan said.

"Right now, the priority is to make sure the community is safe and well," said the minister, who was among the group flown into Burwash aboard the RCMP Twin Otter.

Keenan did say, however, that the government "will be there" for those who are affected by the fire.

"We have lost some structures, lost homes, but we have not lost the heart and the soul in the community because I see that very much in the people I have talked to."

Fire boss Mike Sparks explained in the briefing that firefighters faced almost unbearable conditions Sunday afternoon as the inferno started to make what would be an eight-kilometre run.

Thirty- to 40-kilometre-per-hour gusts fanned the fire into a rank five blaze that saw flames shooting skyward as high as 50 metres from 2 p.m. to 2 a.m. Monday.

Zero visibility came and went and crews working around the clock were maxed out by the speed and persistence of the blaze, Sparks said.

"We did lose some structures but we did some fairly significant saves here," he said. "The (trading post) was a miraculous save."