All campfires and open fires are now prohibited as the fire danger rating in has been pushed to extreme across the territory by the hot and dry conditions.

Duty officer Mike Sparks of the Wildland Fire Management branch said today the last time fire officials banned campfires was back in 1998 and 1999.

But in his years of experience here, he's never seen the danger rating indicators up so high so soon in the year, he said.

Fire management issued a no-burn order last week for Yukoners with burning permits.

One method used by officials to measure the volatility of forest fuels indicates a rating of 94 for the fine fuels, said Sparks, adding that at 91 fine fuels are already explosive.

'So it does not take much,' he said. 'A spark from a campground fire can quickly create a 10 hectare-fire.'

The notice of bans on all campfires inside and out of territorial campgrounds was issued early this afternoon.

The fire branch reports seven new fires detected over the weekend, of which one was human caused while lightning is suspected as the cause of the other six.

Sparks said the short-range forecast by fire management staff is calling for thundershowers with little rain beginning Wednesday in the Dawson area and working its way south.

The forecast, however, can change quickly, Sparks pointed out.

He noted that an early afternoon forecast did not show any clouds or chance of thunderstorm activity in the southeast yesterday though there were over 800 lightning strikes in a strip from Watson Lake to the N.W.T. border by the time the storm passed.

The duty officer said he expects there'll be new fire starts from Sunday's lightning activity in the southeast, as well as from thunderstorm activity expected to begin Wednesday.

All fire fighting staff are currently on hand, and the territory is thinking about beefing up its initial attack capabilities with crews from elsewhere in Canada, and likely Ontario and Manitoba where the fire danger isn't what it is further west, he said.

The territory has recorded 34 fires to date, and 23 are currently burning but 20 of those are not being staffed because they are located in the different wilderness observation zones around the territory.

So far this year, 82,044 hectares have been burned, the largest fire being Old Crow number three near the porcupine caribou.

'Several fires have increased in size over the weekend,' says this morning's fire bulletin issued by fire management. 'Fire officials are expecting this trend to continue with the extreme weather conditions that have been forecasted for this week.'

In fact, said Sparks, the forecast over the next 10 days is for pretty much the same, with daytime maximum temperatures slipping slightly by a couple of degrees but building back up by next week.