Yukon officials reiterate safety after crews douse 9th human caused wildfire of the year Published 7:00 am Thursday, June 4, 2026 Officials from Yukon Wildfire Management are reminding the public to observe safe burning practices after crews from YWFM and the Watson Lake Fire Department responded to a human-caused wildfire over the weekend. Wildfire information officer Mike Fancie said this is the 11th wildfire in the territory this season and the ninth fire to be attributed to human causes. In many ways, that’s typical to spring conditions, said Fancie, explaining how the out-sized number of human caused wildfires can be attributed to the lack of other ignition sources on the landscape right now.
“If wildfires aren’t caused by people, they’re usually caused by lightning, but we don’t tend to see meaningful amounts of lightning in the territory until mid-June,” Fancie said. Fancie said the winter snowpack is gone and daily temperatures are climbing into the double digits, leaving smaller fuels such as grass to dry out quickly and increasing the wildfire risk. He said the rising danger often leads to more human-caused fires early in the season as more people head outdoors.
“It’s the full gamut of things,” Fancie said. “We see abandoned campfires, unpermitted burning, or fires that get out of hand.” Fancie said while this pattern isn’t out of the norm for this time of year, it is important for the public to be mindful of fire safety in order to reduce instances of preventable fires. “We always want to let people know how important it is to burn safely so that we can reduce the number of human-caused fires every year,” he said.
The reminder comes as YWFM crews prepare for one of the first significant heat events of the summer, with temperatures forecast to climb into the mid-20s this week. The heat is expected to bring very low relative humidity, creating what firefighters call crossover conditions. Crossover occurs when the temperature is higher than the relative humidity.
Firefighters consider those conditions dangerous because they can quickly dry out grass, brush and other fuels, increasing the risk of wildfire. With crossover conditions forecast this week, YWFM crews are being “really careful” to ensure they have strong on-the-ground preparedness if a fire starts, Fancie said. He said the heightened response is expected to be short-lived, with rain and cooler temperatures forecast for much of the southern territory this weekend.
While the Yukon has experienced a very average start to its fire season, across the country several provinces have already seen immense fire activity with British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, and Ontario all seeing large fires that have forced thousands of people from their homes over the past several weeks. Several of these fires have been described by responders on the ground as explosive in nature with the Lobstick fire in Saskatchewan eating up more than 19,000 hectares of forest in barely more than three days. Contact Noah Korver at noah.korver@yukon-news.com
