Maria Canton
Northern News Services

NNSL (Jun 21/99) - Extra firefighting crews have been brought in to fight the fire in Wood Buffalo National Park that had consumed 17,000 hectares of remote forest land as of Friday morning.

Ignited by a lightning strike on June 3, the fire is located on the Alberta side of the border near what is known as Carleson's Landing.

On Friday, crews had the blaze contained between an old road and the Slave River.

"So far we haven't lost any park infrastructure or trappers' cabins," says Mike Keizer, an information officer at the park.

"When we first got identification on the fire, it was about 250 hectares."

As part of the park's containment plan, firefighters have been backburning bush around the fire, falling trees and hooking up sprinkler systems and pumps with water lines from the river.

"They're looking at using the meadows and the areas around the fire as part of the containment plan," said Keizer.

He also says as of right now, Friday, there is no threat to campers wanting to stay at the Pine Lakes site, on the NWT side of the park.

"It's about an hours drive to the fire base from here and that's where the crews are stationed."

The initial attack on the fire was through the park's firefighting crews, who have been monitoring the fire 24 hours a day since it started and only as of Friday did outside crews need to be brought in.

The fire generally grows during the day, between noon and 7 p.m., when temperatures begin to soar into the 20 C range. When it cools off in the evenings, the fire tends to stabilize.

This is the sixth fire for Wood Buffalo this year and forecasts of more hot weather and lightning are not aiding the situation.