Tour bus carrying VIPs catches fire on popular Yukon lookout

A tour bus carrying visiting foreign ambassadors was destroyed by fire on Dawson City's Midnight Domeon Monday.

The Dome is a popular stop for visitors to the Klondike region. It overlooks Dawson City, the Yukon River valley and surrounding mountains.

Dave Millar, the operator of Goldbottom Tours, said two of his buses took a group, including ambassadors based in Ottawa, to the top of the Dome.

Millar said after the buses parked and the visitors got out, one of the vehicles began burning. He said there were no injuries and nobody lost any belongings.

Millar assumes the engine caught on fire, but he doesn't know the cause.

He praised staff members at the scene for their handling of the situation. They had a fire extinguisher, but it was not enough to stop the blaze.

Dawson City's fire chief Jim Regimbalsaid the fire department received the call about 3 p.m. and wason the scene a short time later.

He said vehicle fires at the lookout are an occasional occurrence because of the long steep climb up the Dome Road.

"When it's hot, the sun's right, for lack of a better word, the air mixture is right it does happen," he said.

The fire chief said he's still investigating the cause, but believes it started in theengine compartment and was accidental.

Regimbalsaid both the tour staff and the firefighters were calm and professional throughout the incident. He said he sometimes forgets how good the volunteer firefighters are.

"A few timesI was just in awe, standing back in command, looking how everything had fallen in place. So, the hard work and the training that the members do on this volunteer department it's mindblowing."

Millar said the burned-out wreckhas been moved from the lookout.

He added it's a trip the ambassadors are unlikely to forget.