Fire burning near Whitehorse airport is under control: fire chief

A fire burning just north of Erik Nielson Whitehorse International Airport since Friday is under control and should be extinguished soon, according to the city's fire chief, Jason Wolsky.

Firefighters from the City of Whitehorse have been working to extinguish it since Friday, with support from the airport and the Yukon government's forest management branch.

Wolsky said Sunday that while the fire is visible from the airport runways and the Alaska Highway, it had been contained to a single pile of brush and dirt on the slope of a gully. He said the fire was unlikely to spread.

"The fire's just seated itself in the bank," he said. "And it's not going anywhere."

According to Wolsky, the fire was contained as early as Friday.

Wolsky said crews are slowly pulling the brush pile apart by hand and pouring water on it. But that work is slow-going, he says. The pile is on a steep cliff and the fire is burning deep into its side.

Wolsky predicted it might be two more days before crews fully extinguish the fire.

He said they still don't know how the fire started, but there "may be indications" it was human-caused. Wolsky said the RCMP are now investigating.

The CBC was unable to reach the Yukon RCMP for comment on the investigation before publication.

Whitehorse residents can "expect to smell and see smoke" for the next few days, Whitehorse Fire and Protective Services said in a social media post Sunday.