Kotzebue sees 3 separate fires in town this month

No injuries were reported in three separate fires this month in Kotzebue, the city officials said.

“There was three fires in town over the span of this month,” said Shaylin Ferguson, the city’s public relations officer. “No one was hurt.”

On Aug. 11, at about 12:35 a.m., the Kotzebue Fire Department was dispatched to a fire at a conex behind Kotzebue Middle High School, according to a city statement. On Aug. 16, at about 9 a.m., the department responded to a fire at an unoccupied house on Otter Street.

Ferguson didn’t share the date and location of the third fire but said that it damaged a car.

“The vehicle fire was determined to be accidental,” Ferguson said.

The fires at the conex and unoccupied building are under investigation, Ferguson said.

“A lot of the information is going to be confidential,” she said.

The department reported both incidents to the Alaska Department of Public Safety and the Alaska State Fire Marshal’s Office, according to the city’s statement. City officials asked anyone with additional information about the fires to contact dispatch at 907-442-3351.

“Due to these incidents still being under investigation, the public is encouraged to report any trespassers to the Kotzebue Police Department,” the city said.

The owner of the damaged conex, resident Lance Kramer, said that he learned about the fire when his friend knocked on his door to alert him.

“He said, ‘Well, your conex is on fire.’ And then we heard this loud boom,” Kramer said. “We went to the back door, downstairs of the building, and sure enough, the conex is just in flames and there was black smoke.”

The fire melted one of Kramer’s snowmachines next to the conex, as well as construction materials stored inside and on top of the structure, Kramer said.

Kramer is a pastor for Changepoint Church, and he said that the church — in collaboration with a Christian humanitarian organization, Samaritan’s Purse — was planning to use the construction materials to renovate the old Wien Hotel building in Kotzebue and turn it into housing units.

Kramer estimated the cost of the materials and equipment lost to be about $50,000.

“The plan was to put foam paneling and siding and windows on this building before the snow flies, and it’s gonna be hard to do that now,” he said. “So a lot of money lost, a lot of time lost.”

Kramer and several residents tried to use their fire extinguishers to put out the fire before the fire department arrived, but two out of three fire extinguishers they had were empty, he said. Additionally, several residents called the office of the Kotzebue Fire Department to dispatch help, but the local firefighters were alerted only when someone called 911.

“Make sure you have working fire extinguishers,” Kramer said, “and call 911 if you see something.”

This is a developing story and will be updated when more details become available.