Wildfire north of Wasilla grows to more than 40 acres
Ground crews, helicopters and planes were battling the fire off Moose Meadows Road, which quickly grew on Saturday. Two homes in the area were evacuated as a precaution.
Ground crews, helicopters and planes were battling the fire off Moose Meadows Road, which quickly grew on Saturday. Two homes in the area were evacuated as a precaution.
Firefighters expect to have the 130-acre Trumpeter Fire fully contained by the end of shift Friday.
The state of Alaska will pay about half.
The line going north from Alaska’s largest hydro plant could take months to repair. Several utilities say rates will rise until then.
The Swan Lake Fire on the Kenai Peninsula has cost $46 million to suppress.
The Swan Lake fire choked the tiny Kenai Peninsula town with smoke, blanketed it with ash and kept tourists away during the typically bustling summer.
“Fire progression has stopped,” said a fire official, while firefighters focus their efforts on ash pits and hazardous trees.
Normal temperatures were recorded on only one day of the month.
Fire managers say the 162,000-acre blaze on the Kenai Peninsula remains a threat, but much-needed rain has reduced smoke and fire activity.
The highway is a crucial artery linking Anchorage and Kenai Peninsula communities from Cooper Landing to Homer. Getting through has been touch-and-go the past couple of weeks.
Meanwhile, the two primary wildfires in the Susitna Valley are now more than 70% contained.
Even a little rain would be welcome, the weather service says, with parts of the region in extreme drought and fire danger high.
“This is a rare event,” said Rick Thoman, a climate scientist. “It will be less rare in the future.”
The Matanuska-Susitna Borough declared a disaster emergency Tuesday over multiple wildfires, the largest of which destroyed dozens of structures.
By Sunday evening, the western edge of the fire was about 5 miles from Cooper Landing.
The wildfire Saturday was one of several Mat-Su fires that officials say resulted from strong winds either knocking down power lines or causing trees to fall on power lines.
Thousands of strikes have been recorded the past few days, officials said. Nineteen new fires were reported Monday and four more spotted Tuesday.
The size of the fire is estimated at about 250 acres total, a spokesman for the state's forestry division said.
A tree fell on a power line near Delta Junction, sparking the first large wildlife of the season, a fire official said.
Hot and dry conditions in Alaska this week have prompted calls for careful evaluation of firefighter assignment to wildfires in the Lower 48.