SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE - The suffocating amount of mosquitoes in the NWT this year was indicative of the wet summer - the cause of the slowest fire season on record for the territory and the North Slave region, according to one government official.

Arnie Schreder, chief pilot for Buffalo Air, said it was the slowest forest fire season he's ever experienced. In the North Slave region, only six fires broke out this summer and 41 territory-wide. On average, the territory deals with some 240 blazes a year. - Andrew Livingstone/NNSL photo

Frank Lepine, manager of fire operations for the department of Environment and Natural Resources, said the territory experienced only 41 forest fires, with only six of them in the North Slave region.

On average there are over 240 forest fires during the season, the peak point being between June and August.

"Our ten year average is about 230,000 hectares (burned) and this year we burned 2,052 hectares," Lepine said. "That's the real effect of the weather patterns we had this year. The fire season depends on how everything lines up, the climate, lightning, long periods of drying out, that sort of thing.

Generally the territory has a high pressure ridge which goes over the NWT, according to Lepine.

"This summer that ridge sat over the Yukon, which is unusual," he said. "Usually it encompasses the Yukon and the NWT and Alaska gets all the crappy weather."

Arnie Schreder, chief pilot for Buffalo Air, said his fire fighting crews had a quiet summer, only out to battle no more than a half dozen blazes this year, which is rare, he said.

"It was really slow for us," said Schreder.

"It was the slowest one we've ever had. We had two planes over in Alaska for some time, but in the territories it was very quiet."

Schreder said because of the slow season it was spent mostly on-call.

"Just like a fire hall, when there are no house fires they spend a lot of time sitting around and waiting," he said.

Five of the six fires in the North Slave region were man-made, including the fire at the Yellowknife city dump and the sixth caused by a lightning strike near Keller Lake, located Northwest of Yellowknife.

"It was a monitored fire," Lepine said of the Keller Lake fire, meaning the fire is left to burn itself out. "We have a natural fire policy and if their not disturbing any man made values we just let them run themselves out."

Lepine said the above average rainfall had everything to do with the low number of fires this season.

"The average rain fall in the NWT is 14 inches for the year, including snowfall," he said. "One station near Hay River got, in a 60 day period, it had 11.7 inches during the summer months. That's a lot of rain. That's the kind of weather we had for the summer."

With a minimal fire season for the over 300 forest firefighters in the NWT, Lepine said it was able to help other provinces and territories this summer.

"(The slow season) gave us the opportunity to assist other agencies," said Lepine. "It offers them really important, different types of experiences like fighting fires in mountains and different levels of fire beahviour and working with different personnel. It was a good summer in those terms for our fire people."

Firefighters battled blazes in the Yukon, Quebec, British Columbia, and Alaska this summer, allowing them to keep their skills fresh.

While it's too early to tell, Lepine said the severity of the 2010 forest fire season will depend on how dry the Fall season is and how much snow the NWT gets this winter.

"We'll just have to wait and see."