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Cooler weather kept the Homer-area wildfire from growing overnight, officials said.

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The fire, originally estimated at about 1,200 acres, is more accurately about 1,075 acres, said spokesman for the fire command team Pete Buist on Friday morning.

"The weatherman is making us look like heroes," he said.

The forecast for the day was cloudy skies and temperatures in the low 50s, the National Weather Service said. The area might even get a few scattered rain showers later this afternoon.

Meanwhile, residents of three Russian Old Believer communities were still holding out in the face of the smoldering wildfire.

No injuries have been reported.

On Thursday, state Forestry officials confirmed two homes to the west of the villages had been destroyed, and a number of smaller outbuildings had likely been consumed by the fire.

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 Buist. It grew by about 500 acres that night.

This morning, Buist said, "We don't have a huge flaming front like we did the day before yesterday. But we still have a lot of heat, a lot of smoke very close to homes."

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 previous rapid growth prompted officials on Thursday to upgrade it to a Type 1 fire, meaning national crews could have been brought in to fight it. But this morning Buist said some of the firefighters are being turned back. He said firefighters would also be sending several fire fighting aircraft home as well.

As of this morning, about 250 firefighters are still battling the fire.

The three Old Believer villages -- Voznesenka, Razdolna and Kachemak Selo - were given evacuation orders Wednesday. This morning, those evacuation orders were still in effect, although many residents were choosing to stay. 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 on Thursday that 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.

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 will 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. On the other side of the blaze, the Voznesenka School was opened as a shelter. Today, the school remained a shelter and classes were canceled.

The fire started along power lines, and officials had an unconfirmed report that a tree had fallen on a line, knocking it down, said Sharon Roesch, fire prevention officer with the Forestry Division.

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.

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

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 on Thursday.

Find Megan Holland online at adn.com/contact/mholland or call 257-4343.

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