Firefighters halt Swan Lake fire’s growth toward Sterling, work to keep blaze away from highway

Firefighters have halted the 23,210-acre Swan Lake wildfire on the Kenai Peninsula from advancing toward Sterling, the Alaska state agencies said Saturday.

While the fire in the Kenai National Wildlife Refuge continues to grow on its eastern flank, it has not grown on its southwest corner — near the community of Sterling — in several days.

“They got that corner locked off,” said Kale Casey, a spokesman for the Alaska Interagency Incident Management Team. “That’s the big news we want to make sure nobody misinterprets.”

The fire is 4 miles north of the Sterling Highway, and has been moving toward it, Casey said. The next challenge for firefighting crews will be to halt growth in that direction.

“They are working their tails off to prevent it from making a push toward the Sterling Highway,” Casey said.

[Smoke from Kenai Peninsula wildfire likely to blow into Anchorage through this weekend]

There are 335 personnel assigned to battling the fire, including ground crews and aerial operations.

The fire is about 12 miles long and 4 miles wide. The burning is an ecological benefit for the area, Casey said, because the black spruce trees there are part of a fire-dependent ecosystem.

An air quality advisory issued by the state Division of Air Quality earlier this week remains in effect through 4 p.m. Monday. Southcentral Alaska communities closest to the Swan Lake fire — including Anchorage, Sterling, Soldotna, Cooper Landing, Nikiski and Kenai — could be affected by the smoke, according to the advisory.

Conditions could range from “good,” meaning no action needs to be taken, to “unhealthy,” meaning that children, older adults and people with respiratory or heart diseases should avoid prolonged exercise, and everyone else should limit prolonged exercise, according to the advisory.

The Swan Lake fire started June 5 and was caused by lightning. Travel along part of the Sterling Highway was limited Friday morning because of heavy smoke, but the highway was reopened the same day.