An additional $75,000 to $80,000 per day is being spent to ensure the Yukon's forest firefighting capabilities keep step with the increasingly dangerous conditions.

Fire management officials said Monday afternoon they have implemented a number of initiatives aimed at ensuring firefighters are ready to go as quickly possible, as more and more lightning-caused fires continue to show up.

There are now 10 helicopters operational around the territory. Some are being used to ferry fully-equipped initial attack crews of three on patrols near populated and other high-risk areas as the fire danger remains extreme across the territory.

'Because of the conditions out there ... we have to get on a fire very quickly to stop it,' duty officer Mike Sparks said Monday.

Standard calculations of different indicators used by fire managers showed that conditions Monday would see a fire grow to 10 hectares in 15 minutes under an eight-kilometre breeze, Sparks said.

In addition to the regular 21 initial attack crews of three that are all working, three six-man crews of emergency firefighters are being hired one in Dawson City, another in Mayo and one in Watson Lake.

The Wildland Fire Management staff were also meeting today to determine if the call should go out for additional initial attack crews from Outside.

Hot and dry conditions are expected to continue into at least the middle of next week, accompanied by thunderstorms but not a lot of precipitation, which increases the likelihood of more and more lights, management explained Monday.

Fire officials also issued a prohibition Monday against all campfires, inside and outside of territorial campgrounds, for the first time in five years.

Sparks said some of the individual indicators used to calculate the fire danger rating such as the dryness of fine fuels are at record highs for the territory.

Fire management spokeswoman Paula Webber said this morning that staff meteorologist Don Green said today lightning is forecast for around the territory.

'It was already happening this morning,' she said of new lightning activity.

In the wake of a thunderstorm that hit the southeast from Watson Lake to the N.W.T. border last Sunday, six new lightning-caused fires have been detected in the Watson Lake district, of which one is being staffed by firefighters.

Two new lightning starts were also picked up in the Dawson district, of which one is being actioned. A downtown Whitehorse brush fire Monday afternoon brings to nine the number of new fires in the last 24 hours.

There are 30 fires currently active in the Yukon, though the vast majority are burning in wilderness observation zones.

There has also been a report of fire burning near Swift River on the B.C. side of the border, five kilometres south of the Alaska Highway.

The number of hectares burned to date was estimated Monday at 82,004 ha. Webber said the total area burned has not increased significantly since yesterday afternoon but management officials indicated in the 48 hours through the weekend, the total area burned had grown by 40,000-plus ha.

While most fires are burning in the wilderness zones, crews have had to take some action protecting structures in those zones.