The Yukon's platoon of firefighters and its squadron of air attack support is ready for what has so far has been an average start to this summer's wildfire season.

This season, however, comes on the heels of a record fire year in 2004, with 1.8 million hectares burned and $21 million spent on direct suppression costs.

And while the forecast for the immediate future calls for average conditions, it's not possible right now to see what the next couple of months will bring.

It wasn't until June 10 that the territory recorded its first fire caused by a lightning strike in 2004.

'It can change so quickly,' Dan Boyd, the Yukon's director of protective services, told reporters during a tour of the Wildland Fire Management operations Tuesday. 'It can change within a week or two. . . . We are prepared.'

Conair's three Firecat bombers are already sitting on the tarmac in Whitehorse, along with the company's DC-6, four-engine tanker that's been fitted with an 11,365-litre (2,500-gallon) belly tank for retardant.

The DC-6 was to be relocated today to its home base at the Dawson City airport.

As well, there are 71 firefighters on the job, making up 21 three- and four-person initial attack crews sprinkled through the communities across the Yukon. Ten of the crews are contract crews provided by individual first nations, in keeping with provision of the land claim process in the Yukon. A crew of four more from the Ta'an Kwach'an Council is expected to come on soon.

'We are ready for a busy season, but hopefully we won't have that busy of a season,' Boyd said.

At the peak of fire suppression activity last summer, there were some 300 firefighters and management personnel in the territory from across Canada. The fleet of air support was augmented with three CS-415 water bombers from Quebec, six A-26 retardant bombers from Alberta, four more Firecats from B.C. and a Lockheed L-188 tanker from B.C. Thirty-two helicopters were on the job, from around the Yukon and western Canada.

The Yukon required Outside assistance when in the grips of the worst year on record, just as other jurisdictions call upon the territory's firefighting personnel for aid from time to time.

On any given day, however, the territory's Wildland Fire Management team and the Yukon's approach to fire suppression are the envy across the country, Boyd said.

He said in addition to an abundance of expertise among year-round staff, the territory has also incubated a new method of making its fire suppression decisions, based on a system of established priorities.

The system was developed through a series of public meetings to ask Yukoners to identify areas and structures of importance to them, in advance of the April 1, 2003 devolution of federal responsibility to the territory.

As well as ensuring public safety and protection of public property, the mandate for the Wildland Fire Management branch includes allowing forest fires to burn, to maintain Mother Nature's natural balance.

An independent panel of five completed an evaluation of the new system in the wake of the 2004 season. Its report, containing 10 recommendations on nine specific issues, is expected to be available for the public in two weeks. Some have been critical of the new method, suggesting there was more time spent making decisions about priorities than putting out fires.

The territory's Firesmart program is also the envy of several other jurisdictions, officials emphasized.

More and more Yukoners and communities, it was suggested, are seeing the program not as a winter works project but a pro-active approach to prevent the wrath of wildfires.

Al Beaver, a five behaviour specialist and only one of three in Canada who teach the profession, said that having property owners minimize the risk to their homes is the most important duty of all.

It is even more important than the work by firefighters and bombers on the fire line, he said.

A property whose fuel load has been minimized, said Beaver, is that much easier to protect should a wildfire dance that way.

So far this year, there have been 13 forest fires, consuming a total of 27 hectares, says the daily activity report issued this morning.

The most recent fire was jumped on Tuesday at Quill Creek in the Haines Junction district by an initial attack crew of three and the community's volunteer fire department. The three Firecats were dispatched from Whitehorse but a retardant drop was unnecessary because firefighters had already contained the blaze at .1 of a hectare.

Haines Junction is the only district in the territory reporting extreme fire hazard conditions this morning.

Carmacks is registering moderate conditions, Teslin is moderate and the rest of the territory is showing a low hazard, says this morning's report.