Anchorage Daily News

Residents of three Russian Old Believer communities were holding out Thursday in the face of a smoldering wildfire to the west, though the explosive growth the fire experienced early on had ended.

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State Forestry officials have confirmed two homes to the west of the villages have been destroyed, and a number of smaller outbuildings have likely been consumed by the 1,200-acre fire as well. No injuries have been reported.

Firefighters had hoped to keep the blaze to the south of East End Road, but the fire broke loose and made a significant run -- travelling at least a mile north and west of the road overnight Wednesday, said Pete Buist, spokesman for the fire command team.

It grew by about 500 acres that night. But on Thursday, its perimeter held steady, he said.

"It's smoldering, that's for sure, but it's not out by any stretch of the imagination," Buist said. "It's a lot better than it was 24 hours ago."

Buist said it would still likely be days before the fire is contained -- assuming winds don't whip it up again -- and crews would be working it for weeks.

Fire officials estimate that 50 homes are threatened. Its rapid growth since sparking Tuesday evening has prompted officials to upgrade the blaze to a Type 1 fire, meaning national crews can be brought in to fight it.

About 200 firefighters are battling the fire. Four additional hand crews headed to the scene Thursday to bring the total to three Type I and four Type II crews, which focus on hand-digging fire lines, said Sharon Roesch, fire prevention officer with the Forestry Division. There were also 24 smokejumpers working the fire.

The three Old Believer villages -- Voznesenka, Razdolna and Kachemak Selo -- were given evacuation orders Wednesday. By Thursday evening, villagers were no longer being asked to leave. Old Believers are members of a Christian sect that broke from the Russian Orthodox Church in the 17th century.

In Voznesenka, the village nearest the edge of the fire with about 150 people, resident Isaiah White, 24, said his family was holding out in their home on East End Road about a half mile from the blaze.

"A little too close for comfort, but far enough to where we're kind of watching out for it but not too worried," White said. "We're still not going to relax until it's completely out."

There was enough of a clearing around the house that he thought it would survive the fire, he said. Still, hoses were at the ready in the yard to wet things down if the fire got close. Bags were packed if it got closer.

Humidity was at about 55 percent today, offering some moisture to tamp down flames, Roesch said. The National Weather Service was reporting winds out of the west blowing at about 15 mph with no rain in sight.

Despite that, and the mostly defensive tack fighting operations had taken, the fire appeared to be foundering Thursday.

"I'm hearing that there's not a lot of flames. ... Just a huge area that's smoldering," Randy Creamer, principal of the Kachemak-Selo school, said in the evening.

East End Road opened to traffic Thursday, though Alaska State Troopers were maintaining a checkpoint and asking that only those who needed to travel it do so.

Lt. Barry Wilson, troopers' search and rescue coordinator, said officers were in the villages prepared to assist if the fire flared back up. The area is remote, without much cell phone reception, and even radio communication is spotty.

The three communities have about 450 people, but how many remained was not known, Wilson said. Troopers would go door-to-door notifying people in the event they needed to get out in a hurry, he said.

"And there's only one way out of that community, beyond going though the water," Wilson said.

Officials said they knew of several families who had checked into Homer hotels Wednesday night.

The Alaska Red Cross set up a shelter at Homer High School overnight Wednesday but no one stayed there, volunteer Frank Keener said. Several people, however, had come in Thursday saying they planned to stay the night, he said. Some had homes close to the fire; others had lost them, he said.

"They're devastated with what they've gone through," Keener said. "You think about the loss, and you know what somebody's mind-set has to be once they're going through or have gone through a loss."

On the other side of the blaze, the Voznesenka School was opened as a shelter.

The fire started along power lines, and officials had an unconfirmed report that a tree had fallen on a line, knocking it down, Roesch said.

Joe Gallagher, a spokesman for Homer Electric Association, said officials knew a wire had hit the ground but that the cause of the fire was still under investigation.

Since the fire started at about 5:30 p.m. Tuesday, about 290 customers beyond Mile 17 East End Road have been without power, Gallagher said. The line was repaired Wednesday but officials had no immediate plans to restore power, he said.

"We will take direction from Forestry on that, and when they feel it's safe and prudent to put the power back on, that's when we'll do that," Gallagher said.

Meanwhile, the lack of power meant some residents in the villages were without water to fight the fire.

"Most of the homes out here are either a cistern system or a well in the ground, and those are all powered," said Pete Swanson, principal at McNeil Canyon Elementary. "So if they're out of electricity, they're out of water."

The school is about four miles from where the fire began, and two of the fire crews were being housed there, he said. Only about 96 students out of 148 showed up Thursday, Swanson said.

Kenai Peninsula Borough School District Assistant Superintendent Dave Jones said school was cancelled in Voznesenka, Razdolna, and Kachemak Selo on Thursday. It was not clear if today's classes were cancelled.

The fire started out at a mere two acres, but has exploded in size. Wednesday morning, it was just 70 acres, but by nightfall it was at 700.

The Kenai Peninsula's large swaths of beetle-killed spruce trees and the still-dry grass make it "a potentially volatile situation," state Forestry Division information officer Glen Holt said.

Overall, the blaze remained about 10 percent controlled Thursday.

The Forestry Division said it may call on firefighters from the Lower 48 to assist. With the season in most of the western part of the United States not yet started, there will be crews available, Holt said.

Find James Halpin online at adn.com/contact/jhalpin or call him at 257-4589.

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