Dawn Ostrem
Northern News Services

Yellowknife (Jun 30/00) - Personnel at the fire command centre in Yellowknife are getting busy.

The time for fires to start sweeping over the Northern region of this nation is Canada Day weekend. As of Thursday morning the command centre, located in the Resources, Wildlife and Economic Development office, is tracking 17 fires in the North Slave region.

A weather report warned between Wednesday and into the weekend the region would be experiencing prime fire weather.

"The next three days we're going to get fairly severe fire weather, strong winds and lightning," explained regional duty officer Ernie Campbell on Wednesday.

"In a couple of days we could be sitting in extreme burning conditions in the North Slave region and we'll be in trouble then."

Four new fires have been reported in the last 24 hours as of Thursday.

The command centre in Yellowknife is not unlike the other 10 in the Northwest Territories but so far this year the North Slave region has seen the most fires and driest weather.

"So far it's been similar to 1998 because it has been so dry early in the season," Campbell said.

"If a fire starts we'll have a difficult time mopping it up, putting it out. They keep smouldering."

In 1998 Campbell said the Yellowknife office was a very hectic environment with personnel working 16-hour days in order to extinguish 28 fire starts, mostly along the Ingraham Trail.

Every morning at 10:30 crew bosses, pilots, warehouse people, initial attack officers and radio operators meet for a briefing from a meteorologist to let them know what to expect and plan ahead.

Reports carrying data on aircraft, weather, indices (dryness ratings) and lightning maps, for example line a portion of the wall. Maps and charts take up the remaining wall space.

A computer program records lightning strikes as they happen and show up on screen. Different colours represent different time periods.

Currently the North Slave region has eight fire crews in its communities, consisting of five people. Campbell said if needed it is common for extra outside resources to help backup the region.

"A lot of resources do come to Yellowknife because we do have a lot of high-value areas," he said. "We have the biggest population base and there's a lot of structures along the Ingraham Trail and toward Rae."

The North Slave region also has the highest number of man-caused fires in the North at about 30 per cent.