Hay River (July 26/04) - Firefighters are ready to make a stand at Sandy Lake if nearby forest fires march towards the cabin area.

"I feel fairly confident that we're going to be successful here," said Jack Bird, RWED's incident commander at Sandy Lake.

Firefighter Allan Farcy of Fort Providence takes a break from preparing Sandy Lake for the possible approach of forest fires.

Allan Farcy put it more succinctly when asked if any fire will be stopped.

"Oh yeah. We're fire eaters," the Fort Providence firefighter responded.

Two large forest fires in Wood Buffalo National Park are burning south of Sandy Lake, about an hour's drive from Hay River.

As of late last week, concern centered around a 15,000-hectare fire 35km from the lake and its 24 cabins.

"The worst-case scenario for us is to have a southeast wind which would push it parallel to Highway 5 and advance it towards our control line," Bird explains, noting thick forest lies in-between.

"It could conceivably be here in a 24-hour period," he said.

A 65,000-hectare park fire was 56km to the south of the lake.

A 25-person RWED team at Sandy Lake has widened an existing fire break, built a new 17km break from Highway 5 to the lake, and spread hoses to water property.

No significant change

Carolyn Duchoslav, the park's fire information officer, said neither fire south of Sandy Lake had changed significantly in the few days up to Saturday because of high humidity and low temperatures.

Duchoslav said the park is concentrating efforts on the 15,000-hectare fire and a 2,035-hectare blaze about 65km west of Fort Smith. Both are close to Highway 5.

Fire operations and sometimes heavy smoke were closing the route at times, she added.

Duchoslav said travellers should check with the park before using the highway.

Fires outside of national parks were not threatening any communities as of Saturday, according to RWED's NWT Fire Centre in Fort Smith.