SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE - While B.C., Yukon, and Alaska have been experiencing some of their worst fire seasons on record, the NWT has had it's absolute best, according to Frank Lepine, manager of fire operations for the Department of Environment and Natural Resources.

"In the North Slave we usually get 50 fires a year," said Lepine. "That's our average between 1998 and 2008, and we'll fight around 30 of them and monitor the rest.

"This year we had two."

The first was a small fire, nine kilometres from the airport, caused by an out-of-control campfire, according to department spokesperson Judy McLinton.

The second was caused by lightning, south of Great Bear Lake at the edge of the Yellowknife region.

"This is our slowest season in our statistical history, and that goes back to 1975," said Lepine.

The reason? A wet summer.

"The landscape is really wet. We had the combination of lots of over-winter precipitation, a very, very cold long spring, and a lot of precipitation in June and July," said Lepine.

"In North Slave, the highest amount of precipitation has been in Frank's Channel," he continued.

"Almost four inches of rain. That's a lot of rain - that's not normal for us."

Lepine was unable to comment on whether it may be because of climate change or just the natural weather cycles due to a lack of information on the meteorological history of the NWT.

The provinces and territories are members of the Canadian Interagency Forest Fire Centre, and are bound by the Mutual Aid and Resource Sharing agreement. As such, two NWT fire crews and other personnel have gone to places in the Yukon and B.C. to help them fend off their infernos.

"When they're in trouble we help them out, when we're in trouble they help us out," said Lepine. "For the most part, it's a pretty good system."