Fire Information Gets Out to the Dawson Public

by Dan Davidson

Officials handling the fighting of the fire in the goldfields and emergency measures operations within the City of Dawson continued on Wednesday the information blitz which has begun the evening before in town council chambers and at the Rock Creek Fire Hall.

At the same time, two of the fires, the Dempster and French Gulch blazes, were proving how unpredictable they could be by taking runs in new directions.

This meeting was just one of several held to keep the public informed. Photo by Dan Davidson.

The fires were on the agenda at the monthly meeting of the Dawson City Chamber of Commerce, where business owners were advised to direct tourists to the Visitor Reception Centre on Front Street for up to date information.

Dan Cable, one of three YTG communications personnel working on this situation, assured members that road closures were never for longer than they had to be and had, up to that point, been for no longer than two hours at any given time.

Jaws dropped when he related the comment that had been made to a customer by a server in some restaurant that an item on the menu was not available because the freight trucks could not get through. Everyone around the table knew that to be false, but could easily see how an offhand remark like that could snowball into some very bad public relations.

Cable was firm is saying that the town was in no immediate danger and, while there were contingency plans for evacuation, they were about “if, not when.”

Speaking of public relations, Dick Van Nostrand of the Downtown Hotel was very concerned about the arrival of video crews from Global TV and CBC TV.

“They’re up here to broadcast disaster,” he said. “That’s what they get their rocks off on. They’ve got to be cornered and make sure that they send your message out, because that’s what’s going to hurt us.”

Chamber members wanted to see some changes to YTG postings about road closure so that it would be obvious that they were of short duration.

The members were also reassured by the prompt payment of government invoices related to the fire situation. After the 1999 fires some businesses waited eight months for bills to be settled. This time, the financial officer is making the rounds with a credit card in hand.

A larger group of citizens was addressed in the Ancillary Room at the Robert Service School (which is serving as the fire centre HQ) later in the evening. The meeting’s content was similar to the briefing in the council chambers the night before, but this time it was successfully telecast over cable 11. There were a few more than 21 people in the room at any given time as presentations were given by the lead officials involved in the fighting and the planning.

Incident commander Matt Meyers was essentially positive about the work being done by his Ontario team, the latest imports from New Brunswick, the Parks Canada crew and all the local fire management personnel. In the main, he is certain of eventual success in keeping fries away from Dawson and preserving both highway and power lines in the region.

Things can take surprising turns, however, as the Dempster Fire did on Tuesday, heading down towards the Viceroy Mine and its road. The mine site itself was described by Meyers as being pretty fire safe, but quick action had to be taken to preserve the road and turn the fire the way the team wanted it to go. The 6,000 hectare fire grew by another 2,000 while they were doing that.

Over in French Gulch, the fire closest to Dawson (15 km) the blaze took a run at a northern boundary they had thought secure on Wednesday afternoon, and quick action was required there both by air and land. At the time of the 8 p.m. public meeting the battle was still going on but the outcome looked positive.

Dawson’s EMO coordinator John Mitchell told the audience that a meeting had been called for that same night at the fork in the road between Eldorado and Bonanza Creeks in order to inform miners of the potential seriousness of their situation.

In addition, while all of this was happening, a scheduled backburn along the Klondike Highway at one end of the Dominion Fire had had to be postponed, and that fire had reached the road around 4:20 as a result.

“At about 5 o’clock crews were pulled off ... to safe areas,” Meyers said, “and as soon as the smoke clears over the highway we’re going to get in there with those resources and try to get the highway opened up.

“We expect the highway will be closed - or with intermittent travel being piloted through - until about midnight tonight.”

It was noted by officials at the evening meeting that neither of the television crews made an appearance there.

In spite of horizons like this one, most miners continued operations during the fire crisis. Photo by Ontario Fire Management Team.

Miners Living in the Fire Zone Are Prepared

by Dan Davidson

Tara Christie and her mother, Dagmar, were heading back out to the goldfields on Thursday afternoon after a shopping trip to stock up on supplies in Dawson City.

Christie, the executive director of the Klondike Placer Miners' Association, works with her family at Gimlex Placers, works at two sites that are affected by two of the fires currently raging in what the fire management team has called the Goldfields Complex.

"We've got one on the Indian River and one on Dominion," she said. "The one on Dominion is about four kilometres from the main front of the Dominion Fire."

Christie witnessed the fire that started near that one at the top of Rob Roy a few days ago.

"They got that one. They bombed it and then miners brought up some cats and worked with fire management and it's considered contained, though not completely out.

"The Indian River fire (codenamed Haystack) - we're pretty much adjacent to it. We're building our camp there, in the process of relocating."

Christie expects that when all is said and done her family will be in a zone that will be fire safe for years to come.

"Exactly," she said, laughing at the comment, "We're fire smarting."

She said that a lot of miners are in fairly safe positions. They have equipment and there's no panic out there.

"I sort of got the sense, when I came to town, that people are somewhat panicking, those that aren't out there."

She sees the logic of the goldfields evacuation notice and warning that was issued on the weekend, but also believes that the danger is somewhat controlled for the more experienced miners.

"A lot of them have been burned past already and no structures were lost. The reality is that a lot of the miners are still there."

Some are doing what the Christies have done, leaving camp to make runs into town for fuel ("We have to keep those sprinklers going after all.") and supplies.

The one family with children has taken the children to town. There is one pregnant woman out in the fields, and she is still there.

"The danger to them is past. It's all burnt around their camp. They were in a pretty narrow valley so I imagine there might have been some pretty scary moments out there.

"They were smart though. They didn't take any risks. They had a pump and back up pump and their sprinklers going all the time.

"The reality for them was that their access road was not necessarily any safer for them to evacuate than for them to stay where they were."

Miners' camps tend to be fairly well brushed out and clear of trees. Making them even more sparse isn't too hard when you have the equipment.

"It's interesting, though,” Christie said, “because I've had a lot of miners say, 'I don't want to cut down all the trees around my camp. It all looks nice, Am I allowed to, with mining regulations and so on?'"

In some cases the areas that now have to be cut to make fire barriers have been reclaimed after mining, and the miners, who have taken so much flak about destroying the landscape, hate to have to cut the trees down.

"I'm saying like, well, there's a fire coming guys..."

The Christies did a lot of work to get their claims ready for fires.

"We cut all the brush around our buildings to be safe from blowing embers, because we sometimes get really strong winds in our valley. We've got sprinklers up and pumps ready, so it's not a big risk."

Fire officials agree that it is airborne embers, not a wall of approaching flame, which is most likely to be the immediate threat to a mine site.

Buildings on the mine sites tend to be a mixture of wooden structures and metal clad trailers. Miners need to move propane tanks away from their buildings, but moving diesel tanks is not really a big issue.

"Diesel isn't really explosive," said Christie, “and you kind of need your tanks to run your pumps."

Christie has been happy to see what she feels is a more realistic approach to the problem as the visiting fire teams become more familiar with the area.

"Blanket orders don't really work," she said, "and you can focus your resources on where the real dangers and risks are. That's part of having knowledge.

"When that state of emergency order came out we just had that new Ontario team here. They didn't have a lot of information. I can see why people were probably pretty anxious."

Christie remains concerned about the condition of some of the roads in the goldfields, especially in the burnt out areas where there are fallen trees and other debris.One of her access routes to Dominion Creek was blocked, but she was fortunate to have another.

She says that maintaining at least one access route to each area is pretty important.

"Now that that road's burnt, it's going to be pretty safe, once they get the trees off it and the last smouldering trees away from the sides of the road."

Miners still out on the creeks will be able to get updated information from a sign to located at the fork in the road between Eldorado and Bonanza Creeks. Christie didn't make it to Wednesday night's roadside meeting herself, but has been told it was very positive.