The threat from forest fires forced the evacuation of two small Alaska Highway communities early this morning and has closed the highway between Watson Lake and Fort Nelson, B.C.

Also closed because of local wildfire activity is the Robert Campbell Highway between Watson Lake and Ross River, as well as the Nahanni Range Road (Cantung Road), spokesman Ron Billingham of the Emergency Measures Organization said this morning.

The Alaska Highway is closed to all traffic but for local traffic between Fort Nelson and Fireside, located just north of Liard Hot Springs.

Twelve residents of Contact Creek and seven Iron Creek inhabitants were moved up the highway to Watson Lake under RCMP escort at about 3 a.m.

The Yukon's Department of Health and Social Services is providing food and acommodations for those evacuees who do require it, department spokeswoman Pat Living said this morning.

The department is also issuing a smoke alert to those with respitory or heart conditions to stay inside with the windows closed, she said.

'I spoke with the hospital this morning and they hadn't had anybody in Sunday as a result of the smoke, so they are not seeing an increase in respiratory problems.'

Smoke cover in Whitehorse was heavy over the weekend, particularly Sunday afternoon, when Grey Mountain was not even visible from Riverdale.

It was somewhat lighter this morning but officials with the Wildland Fire Management branch are concerned about the potential for more new fires.

There are 112 fires burning across the territory, all of which were started by lightning and most of which are burning in wilderness observation zones, fire management spokeswoman Paula Webber said this morning.

She said of the 117 wildfires to date, there have been 212,960 ha consumed.

Fire officials, however, are concerned about the amount of lightning activity over the last 24 hours, with a forecast of more to come, she said.

Webber said there were 354 strikes within 110 kilometres of Whitehorse, another 236 in the Teslin area and some 400 in the Haines Junction area.

Fire officials have expressed previously their nervousness about wildfires breaking out in the southwest corner because of the extensive tracts of beetle-killed spruce, which are more volatile than live spruce because of their dead and dry condition.

'And there is a fair bit of lightning forecast for the Haines Junction, Burwash and Whitehorse areas again today,' she said.

The Coal River fire east of Watson Lake which forced the evacuation this morning was detected Friday. It has grown to an approximate size of 1,800 ha, spokeswoman Cynthia Mann of the B.C. Forest Service said this morning.

She said it's a long, slim fire of 20 kilometres in length and two kilometres wide, burning the near the Alaska Highway and Yukon-B.C. border.

'It was demonstrating extreme fire behaviour yesterday, and it expanded to 1,800 hectares as of 10 o'clock last night,' Mann said.

She said the Swan Lake fire that continues to keep some 50 Swift River, Yukon, residents on a two-hour evacuation alert has grown to approximately 22,000 ha size.

At mid-week last week, officials were estimating its size at 3,000 ha. It too forced a closure of the Alaska Highway between Teslin and Watson Lake, after it crossed the highway at three locations.

As well as a potential threat to Swift River, there was also fear the Swan Lake fire would threaten a vital communication tower through which all of Northwestel Inc.'s north-south communication is routed.

The threat to the tower has remained at low risk since last Thursday. However, with the fire moving westward toward Whitehorse, Northwestel is now keeping an eye on the Mount Hazel tower, the next tower to the west, company spokeswoman Anne Kennedy said today.

Billingham noted the Emergency Measures Organization is staffing a telephone line to provide callers with the most up-to-date status of highway conditions between 8 a.m. and 5 p.m. The number is 667-3710.

Webber said officials are expecting more human resources to arrive today from Ontario.

That province is already supplying 16 initial attack crews of three and another six crews are expected to arrive today, she said.

As well, a squadron of two CL-415 water bombers and a bird dog spotting pilot arrived from Quebec on Saturday, while six B-26 retardent bombers were called back to Alberta because of fire conditions there.

Webber said late this morning the latest lightning-caused fire was detected in the area of Bennett Lake, and crews are on it.

There were two human-caused fires over the weekend a grass fire along Long Lake Road and what is being described as a fairly substantial blaze on the bluffs at the end of Black Street.

'It was going fairly quickly but it was mostly on the ground,' acting Whitehorse fire chief Warren Zakus said today of the Black Street fire that was reported at 10:17 p.m. Saturday.

'There was some dead trees that started to burn fairly high up so it was growing fairly quickly.'

He said in addition to city firefighters, there were also firefighters from the airport and the Wildland fire branch. The cause is unknown, but it wasn't lightning, he said of the blaze that burned from about halfway up escarpment to the top.

Webber said the hot and dry weather conditions are expected to moderate somewhat this week with the weakening of the high pressure system over the Yukon, though it's expected to rebuild by the end of the week.