While the Yukon experiences a massive increase in the number of fires burning across the territory, members of the Vuntut Gwitchin First Nation in Old Crow are speaking out about the lack of aid their community is receiving.

“Basically, we need a lot more help right now to prepare for a possible worst-case scenario,” Vuntut Gwitchin executive director James Smith told the Star this morning.

The First Nation issued an evacuation alert on Monday to make sure its citizens are ready, should they need to flee.

The Yukon government has not yet issued an alert for the area.

Smith said government agencies need to do more to provide on-the-ground support, get enough aviation fuel to the area, work with the First Nation on firefighting priorities and respect the historical fire knowledge of community members.

As of early this afternoon, the government had not provided the Star with a response to these specific criticisms.

Community Services Minister Richard Mostyn addressed some of these issues at a press conference on Monday afternoon, emphasizing that Yukon Wildland Fire Management did not think Old Crow is currently in imminent danger.

“This weekend, I was in touch with the chief of the Old Crow First Nation (Pauline Frost),” he said.

“I know (Sunday) we got them shipments of fuel to the community to alleviate this potential problem. We also have had teams from Inuvik flying in to help with the response.”

Both Mostyn and a Wildland Fire spokesperson said at the press conference that the Yukon’s firefighting resources are stretched thin, and they have requested outside help from other jurisdictions.

They also said that with so many large fires are burning in nearby provinces, territories and states, they may not get help in the Yukon.

Unfortunalty the crew from Nova Scotia also had to leave for rest this past weekend.

“In the face of all this, we have to use all the resources we have on hand to best effect in the interest of all Yukoners,” Mostyn said. “We understand people are nervous.”

It was after seeing these remarks in the press conference that representatives from Vuntut Gwitchin reached out to the Star to tell their side of the story.

Folks in the community were tuned in to the press conference, and Smith said what he heard was a lot of talk from Mostyn about all the resources the Yukon government is putting in to fighting a fire near the Victoria Gold Corp.’s Eagle gold mine.

At a community dinner last night, Smith said he had conversations with people who questioned the Yukon government’s commitment to protecting an evacuated gold mine with a fire four kilometres away over a village with a fire eight kilometres away.

He heard one community member say of the Yukon government: “They care more about gold in the ground than they care about people.”

According to an update by Wildland Fire on Saturday, there were 24 firefighters, an air tanker group and an incident management team working the fire near the Eagle gold mine.

The online fire map created by Wildland Fire shows about a dozen fires in the Old Crow area. Smith said not all area fires are actually on this map, and one of the fires listed as out had re-ignited.

That fire is about eight kilometres from the community, while a larger and more concerning fire is about 14 kilometres away.

The southern Yukon received a good amount of rain on Monday and over the past weekend, but Smith said it has remained quite dry in Old Crow.

Old Crow is a remote community of about 250 people in the northern Yukon that is accessible during the summer only by air or by river.

To be able to fight a fire in an area like Old Crow, Wildland Fire needs to build up a fuel cache, fire information officer Mike Fancie said at the Monday press conference.

Smith says Wildland Fire has brought in about 12 barrels so far, but this is a very small amount should an all-out effort be needed.

So, the Vuntut Gwitchin have secured their own supply of 5,000 litres of fuel from Air North to be delivered later this week.

Another issue Smith highlighted was the lack of personnel on the ground in Old Crow.

Though he said they have received good support from talks with officials in Dawson City and Whitehorse, there are still not enough people in Old Crow to get needed structural protection work done.

“When they say they have a fire crew here, it’s only two guys,” Smith said.

“And they’re asking the two of them to do more work than they have hours in the day to do.”

Smith also wants the community more involved in this process.

“They’re trying to keep control of the community and what the community wants to do in regards to getting ready to fight a fire,” Smith said.

Part of the issue is that the government looks at protecting the Old Crow community – but leaves out things outside of the village that are important to the Vuntut Gwitchin community, Smith said.

“They have their own cabins and their own places in the bush and up the mountain that they want to protect as well, which the Yukon government isn’t very concerned about or doesn’t seem to be very concerned about,” he said.

He said locals also have lots of pertinent information to share about how fire moves through the landscape in the areas around Old Crow – but this is not being listened to.

“The community has a lot of historical knowledge around fires in the area,” he said.

The community is currently having regular meetings and preparing evacuation plans.

At Monday’s press conference, Fancie said the government has met with the First Nation about evacuation plans.

Yet again though, this is another point where Smith said the consultation is lacking.

He said they came to a tentative agreement that if a fire reached within five kilometres of Old Crow, an evacuation would be considered, but that this conversation amounted to a total of “a couple sentences.”