20 properties potentially at risk from wildfire near Dawson City
Coal Creek fire grew more slowly than expected overnight, but evacuation alert remains
Yukon emergency officials say a wildfire near Dawson City has been growing more slowly than expected, but some properties east of the town are still under potential threat.
"There's over 20 different properties and structures that are currently assessed as potentially being at risk from this fire, if conditions push the fire in a certain direction," said Diarmuid O'Donovan, director of Yukon's Emergency Measures Organization, on Wednesday afternoon.
The Coal Creek fire, east of Dawson City, was about 6,500 hectares on Wednesday. It's burning a few kilometres north of the North Klondike Highway, and officials on Tuesday were expecting it to spread toward the highway.
O'Donovan said Wednesday that the fire grew more slowly than expected overnight.
"We've had some rain affecting areas under fire at the moment, and that includes the airport, Rock Creek, Henderson Corner and many of the farms in the area. So that was a bit of a bonus," he said.
An evacuation alert issued on Tuesday remains in place for those areas, though.
We are working with Dawson City and Klondike Valley Fire Departments. Volunteer Fire Departments will be in the neighbourhoods today ensuring everyone is aware of the alert and prepared to evacuate. An air tanker group is based in Dawson to assist as needed.
—@YukonPSO'Donovan said fire crews are busy putting structure protection in place for the properties potentially at risk.
"Many of the properties are not actually occupied full time. However, folks that do have property should be aware of the fire."
Preparing for possible evacuation
Rian Lougheed Smith is definitely aware of the fire — she figured it was somewhere between seven and 11 kilometres from her family's farm near Rock Creek and she can see and smell plenty of smoke. Her farm is one of the properties under an evacuation order.
"We've had to think pretty seriously about what we do with our animals and our home and kind of what stuff we would need to take with us," she said.
"My daughter has packed all of her stuffed animals. I had to talk her down a bit, she wanted to transplant every plant from her garden into pots so we could take it with us."
Lougheed Smith — who's also six months pregnant — says they have about 70 chickens, turkeys and ducks, along with three dogs at their farm. Part of her family's emergency planning is to figure out how to move the animals if necessary.
"We're actually slightly more manageable than a lot of other people around us who have goats and cows," she said.
Lougheed Smith says so far they feel well-supported and well-informed by local fire crews. She said crews came Tuesday to set up sprinklers and other fire suppression measures around their home.
O'Donovan said crews were going door-to-door on Wednesday to ensure that everybody in the affected areas knows what's happening.
"It's a good time for residents in that area to dust off their family emergency kit or household emergency kit," said O'Donovan.
With files from Leonard Linklater and Dave White