Fires Spreading in Southcentral
By Brandon Loomis, Anchorage Daily News, Alaska
Jun. 22–Wildfires ravaged thousands of acres in Southcentral Alaska while numerous lightning strikes threatened to open new fronts Thursday, and state fire managers issued a national call for help.
The Big Su fire near Trapper Lake grew to more than 5,500 acres west of the Susitna River and destroyed at least one structure among the remote area’s cabins and homes, officials said. Two other homes were in imminent danger at 10 p.m. and another 40 were at risk.
Meanwhile on the Kenai Peninsula, the Caribou Hills fire exploded to 20,000 acres Thursday night, and firefighters asked people to evacuate homes and recreational cabins in two areas, including about 300 structures in the Ninilchik 40 subdivision, an area more than 10 miles inland from the village itself.
The Caribou Hills fire, which almost doubled in size between 6 p.m. and 10 p.m., was still about 14 miles inland from Ninilchik itself, a spokeswoman said.
A third fire, at the confluence of the Yentna River and Lake Creek, diverted some firefighters but was holding at 50 acres, state Division of Forestry spokesman Matt Weaver said.
At Trapper Lake, dozens of structures were threatened by the Big Su blaze and firefighters had to shuttle into the roadless area by helicopter. The Copper River and Yukon crews converged on the fire with about 40 firefighters. About 125 firefighters were toiling in the Caribou Hills.
The Red Cross opened a shelter at Willow Community Center on Thursday afternoon and one at the Ninilchik Senior Center Thursday night.
Looking ahead to the night, Weaver said forecast lightning might stretch the state’s firefighters thin.
“We have finite resources and we’re allocating as efficiently as we can,” he said. “A lot’s going to depend on what happens in the next 48 hours.”
The state put out a call to the National Interagency Fire Center in Idaho for 10 Hot Shot crews from the Lower 48. If available, they would total 200 firefighters and may be split evenly between the Southcentral region and the Interior, depending on priorities when they arrive.
Weaver was unsure how many firefighters are now in the state, but said village crews were mobilizing for deployments statewide. Smaller fires, including one at 40 acres in the Tanana region, burned around the state. But on Thursday the Caribou Hills and Big Su fires were top priorities.
BIG SU THREAT
The Matanuska-Susitna Borough helped with the Big Su fire but also staffed all of its stations to respond to new lightning strikes, said acting chief Michael Keenan of the Central Mat-Su Fire Department. About 20 borough firefighters went to the Big Su fire, and the department was developing a contingency plan to protect property if the fire jumps the river.
The fire was moving to the north into dry spruce and could grow dramatically, he said.
“It’s a beautiful plume of smoke right now,” Keenan said. “It’s a pretty active fire.”
State helicopters continued dumping buckets of water on the Caribou Hills fire, but two retardant tanker planes were diverted to Palmer and helped with the Big Su fire. Canada was sending two more tankers and two “ducks,” planes equipped with belly scoops to skim water from large lakes. Kris Eriksen, the Forestry Division spokeswoman working the Caribou Hills fire, said the ducks could gather water at Tustumena Lake, north of the fire.
The fire spread to the south and east Thursday, and in the evening jumped across Deep Creek’s north fork, threatening recreational cabins. Eriksen said firefighters were asking people Thursday night to voluntarily evacuate that area, as well as the Ninilchik 40 subdivision on the northwest side of the fire.
Gary Anderson, a Caribou Hills resident helping the state coordinate logistics on the fire, said firefighters continued smothering and watering hot spots on the slope north of Deep Creek through the day, trying to protect cabins.
Smoke dispersed across the entire western Kenai Peninsula, and Anderson said it’s hard to track where the flames are moving.
“The smoke has been so bad that I can’t see anything,” he said when contacted by cell phone Thursday afternoon. “We’ve got people all over the place.”
He used his homemade dune buggy — sheet metal on a Chevy Blazer chassis with a Cadillac V-6 engine and fat tires — to help ferry firefighters and their supplies in and out of the fire lines.
He said the crews were now equipped with tents, after many of them spent the first night along a dirt road in trucks.
Kenai National Wildlife Refuge manager Robin West said ecologically it wouldn’t necessarily be bad if the Caribou Hills fire burned northeast into the refuge. The area is dominated by mature black spruce and may be overdue in its natural burn cycle, he said. A fire would sprout birch and aspens, potentially helping moose and other animals.
“The ecosystem is used to it, expects it, needs it,” West said.
He added that relatively recent fires near Tustumena Lake have created natural firebreaks that likely would prevent the fire from growing northward into developed areas around Kasilof and Clam Gulch.
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Find Brandon Loomis at adn.com/contact/bloomis or call 1-907-260-5215 ext. 24.
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Copyright (c) 2007, Anchorage Daily News, Alaska
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