A Yukon First Nations Wildfire crew has taken up a request for help tackling wildfires raging across Alberta.
Yukon First Nations Wildfire announced on Facebook that the Bonanza Unit Crew (along with a Yukon government agency representative, according to the territorial government) has been deployed to the southern province.
Hyder Bos-Jabbar is the chief operating officer for Yukon First Nations Wildfire, a private company that provides its services with the support of the Yukon government.
He said the crew was sent to the Blue Sky Fire, about 24 kilometres north of Marten Beach, along Highway 88, in Alberta's Slave Lake Forest Area. Multiple fires are burning in the area as firefighters, helicopters, airtankers and heavy equipment work to fight them.
“It's just our desire to help, you know, our neighbours and our brothers and sisters on the wildfire services down south and, you know, provide that support to those who need it the most,” Bos-Jabbar said by phone.
“There's a huge amount of pride that goes with that, knowing that our services and our expertise is being utilized.”
The crew of 20 firefighters will be out of territory for up to 19 days, as noted in a Yukon government press release. They left on June 6 and can be recalled within 24 hours as needed.
“Adequate crews will remain at all Yukon fire bases,” reads the release.
Late in May, the Yukon exported 23 fire personnel: 20 firefighters and an officer to Alberta, in addition to two officers to Saskatchewan, plus a heavy air tanker.
It is an opportune time to help neighbouring jurisdictions given the territory is currently seeing “low to moderate” fire activity, according to the press release.
Fire information officer Manon Touffet explained the rating refers to active fires as well as the potential for new fires. The rating considers the number of new starts per day, fire behaviour and the potential for spread, and weather conditions like wind, temperature and humidity.
The Yukon’s wildfire hub shows one fire actively burning in the Beaver Creek area of the Yukon while eight have been put out and 4.3 hectares, which works out to 0.043 square kilometres, burned in total so far for the 2025 fire season.
Despite there being only one fire, the soil is “very dry” and the wind has been “strong” in recent days, Touffet said.
The Alaska Highway, one of two roads in and out of the Yukon to the south, has been facing off-and-on closures since early June due to wildfires burning north and south of Fort Nelson, B.C.
Meanwhile, 61 active fires are ablaze in Alberta, where 484 fires have been extinguished this season and more than 617,000 hectares, or 6,170 square kilometres, burned.
Most of the major fire activity is happening in the northern and central parts of Alberta, according to a fire map.
Six Alberta communities are under evacuation orders, according to the Alberta government website as of around noon on June 9.
The Blue Sky Fire is considered out of control and has grown to 10,521 hectares. Firefighters are working to put out hot spots as helicopters with buckets and air tankers work from above and heavy equipment builds containment lines around new active areas, as noted on the Alberta government website.
While Bos-Jabbar didn’t know exactly what the crew will be doing on the ground in Alberta, he said the Yukon First Nations Wildfire crew members are trained for wildfire suppression including providing water through hoses and pumps, patrolling and gridding (which is a surveying technique that is similar to a method used in search-and-rescue missions), and using hand tools and machines to remove fuels.
Bos-Jabbar said his private company is looking to expand to work directly with other provincial and territorial governments outside the Yukon.
“That way we can make ourselves a little bit more freely available,” he said.
In this case, the call came through Yukon Wildland Fire Management.
Contact Dana Hatherly at dana.hatherly@yukon-news.com
