An early report of two fires behind Riverdale Thursday afternoon may have avoided a dangerous situation, George Maratos of Yukon Wildland Fire Management said today.

He said the report of a fire off the Chadburn Lake Road came in at 2:20 p.m. Six forest firefighters responded with the support of a helicopter and water bucket, along with six City of Whitehorse firefighters.

The fires were quickly brought under control but were burning in a critical zone with a high-fuel load and windy conditions, Maratos pointed out.

Wind speeds Thursday afternoon were sustained at 47 to 48 kilometres an hour, with gusts reaching 60.

“The saving grace was that it was not last week, when the relative humidity was much lower, because it would not have taken much for those fires to get going,” he said.

He said the fires are believed to be human-caused and remain under investigation by the city fire department because they’re within city limits.

One fire grew to about 0.75 of a hectare while the other one was just a spot fire of about 200 metres.

Maratos said the smaller fire has been declared out and a crew is on the larger blaze today mopping up.

A third bush fire was started in the Range Road area when a tree blew onto a power line but city firefighters were quick to extinguish it, he said.

Maratos said while cooler, damper temperatures across the territory are assisting firefighters on several active fires, the rating in Whitehorse was still extreme yesterday because of the high wind conditions.

The 72 Ontario firefighters who arrived two weeks ago to assist will be returning Sunday, he said.

Whitehorse fire chief Kevin Lyslo is asking residents to exercise extreme caution while using the trails in the forested areas around town.

People should not be butting out in the bush, he emphasized.

Lyslo said open fires inside city limits are only permitted in backyard fire pits that have been inspected and approved or in approved fire pits at established campgrounds.

“A ring of rocks on the shore of Schwatka Lake is not allowed,” he said.

To date, there have been 97 forest fires, almost all started by lightning and almost all burning in the wilderness zones around the territory.

It’s estimated 31,097 hectares have been burned.