What’s being called the Takhini Bridge fire, located in the Ibex Valley west of Whitehorse, remains out of control today.

Meanwhile, the hot, dry conditions have prompted a partial fire ban territory-wide.

The Takhini wildfire, which began Saturday evening from an unknown cause, was approximately 270 hectares in size as of 9 p.m. Sunday, said Yukon Wildland Fire Management.

An evacuation alert for 155 nearby households , issued Saturday, remains in place for the Ibex Valley east of the Takhini River Bridge up to Echo Valley Road.

If an alert is changed into an order, affected residents would have two hours to leave. Many raise livestock in the region.

A bulldozer guard continued to hold during operations Sunday.

While the fire saw some growth to the southwest, there has been no forward growth of the fire toward the Alaska Highway and area residences.

The smoke has reached Whitehorse, and a very light coating of ash has covered some areas of the city.

The Alaska Highway remains open for travel, but Wildland Fire Management is asking members of the public to allow crews to work effectively and avoid stopping on the roadway adjacent to the fire.

Goals for firefighting crews today were to prevent further growth of the fire toward the Alaska Highway and nearby homes as the prolonged heat wave continues, nudging daytime highs up to the 30 C mark.

The existing guard was reinforced over the weekend, and personnel also worked on building additional ’dozer guards along the west flank of the fire closest to the road.

That work continues with machinery and is being strengthened with hand ignition when conditions are favourable.

Wildland Fire said at noon today, “On the ground, crews will continue to prioritize securing the flank of the fire that runs parallel to the highway and discouraging fire growth towards residences.

“Resources working the fire this morning include five three-person initial attack crews, a 17-person Yukon First Nation Wildfire unit crew, four wildfire officers and a SHOT structure protection team.”

Ground resources will be supported by three helicopters and airtanker groups.

Carefully burning strips of unburned vegetation with driptorches increases the defensible area where crews can set up equipment to fight the fire from.

Additional structure protection, including sprinklers, was deployed over the weekend to more nearby homes.

Weather today is calling for westerly winds at 15 km/h. This will likely aggravate fire behaviour, but the work on the blaze so far will help to prevent growth toward the highway or residences.

The number of people and house-holds affected by the evacuation alert was not known this morning.

The cause of the fire is still undetermined, but an investigator – not affiliated with the RCMP – was on the scene over the weekend.

A map of the approximate fire size Sunday put the size at an estimated 244 hectares. An updated public map will be provided when available.

The wildfire perimeter map is an estimate based on measurements such as GPS, aerial scanning and satellite imagery, says Wildland Fire Management.

This estimated perimeter can change as more accurate measurements become available. Areas within the fire perimeter may not have been affected by wildfire.

Firefighters are also monitoring a blaze of concern about 10 kilometres north of Stewart Crossing.

It’s being called the Reverse Creek fire.

Fire information officer Haley Ritchie said this morning there is no immediate threat but staff are monitoring it very closely.

Ritchie said there are 14 active wildfires burning out of control in the territory.

None of them are posing a threat.

The largest fire is burning in the wilderness zone 20 kilometres south of Little Salmon Lake, and its size is estimated at 8,700 hectares, she said.

Fires burning in the wilderness zone are not typically fought.

On Sunday, Wildland Fire Ma-nagement instituted a level 2 fire ban across the entire territory.

That means only cooking and warming fires are now permitted, and these are only allowed at road-accessible territorial and commercial campgrounds.

No other fires are allowed.

There are three tiers in Yukon fire restrictions. Level 3 allows for cooking and warming fires in all fire-pits or purpose-built containers, while level 1 restrictions ban all fires.

The level 2 restriction is due to the extreme fire danger rating due to hot and dry conditions.

Wildland Fire Management is urging Yukoners to exercise caution in building any fires during this time.

That can be done by avoiding making fires during windy conditions, not building fires larger than necessary, always watching fires and keeping water nearby and ensuring fires are completely out before leaving them – making sure to soak, stir and repeat until ashes are cold to the touch.

They are also telling people to avoid driving vehicles in tall grasses and never throw smoking materials from vehicles.

The last of Yukon-based firefighters who have been working in other jurisdictions this summer returned to the territory over the weekend.

They had been deployed to other western provinces as Canada experiences a record-setting fire season nation-wide.