Forest Service crews are fighting today to contain a 20 thousand acre blaze which is raging between the 12-Mile and 15-Mile Rivers approximately twenty-five miles north of Dawson City.

One hundred men are battling the south end of the fire in an effort to prevent it burning up river toward Moosehide and Dawson. The northeast side of the fire is out of control and sweeping toward the Ogilvie Mountains.

The 12-miles fire is one of ten fires which are currently burning in the Yukon. Five blazes are in remote areas and are not being fought.

A crew was flown in to fight a new fire which ignited south of the Yukon River at Coffee creek, and another crew has been flown into Steward River to assist Rudy Burian in fighting a small fire which rekindled along Henderson Creek.

Other fires included one at Bonanza Creek which is under control and may have been put out completely by now, and another blaze which flared briefly at Hunker Creek but was squelched by an Otter waterbomber.

A small blaze was spotted approximately 12 miles northeast of Snag, but is in a remote area and is not being fought.

Of the five fires burning in remote areas north and east of Dawson, all five are over 20 thousand acres in size.

Sixty-seven forest fires have been tabulated this season in the Yukon. The Forest Service currently has 150 men fighting Yukon fires.