By Amanda Bohman
Fairbanks Daily News-Miner (Alaska)
Copyright 2006 MediaNews Group, Inc. and Fairbanks Publishing Company, Inc.
All Rights Reserved
A forest fire burning east of the Parks Highway hit 100,000 acres or half the size of New York City, the Alaska Division of Forestry announced Friday.
“It’s not uncommon to have fires greater than 100,000 acres,” said Maggie Rogers, spokeswoman for the Alaska Fire Service, “but it doesn’t happen every year.”
The Parks Highway Fire is the largest wildland fire burning in the state.
The growth happened primarily on the fire’s northeastern flank, where burnouts are being conducted and where winds drove flames across the Tatlanika River, officials said.
A handful of hunting cabins on the Wood River are threatened. Smokejumpers are protecting those cabins, said fire information officer Sarah Saarloos. The overall threat to life and property is greatly diminished since the fire died down in the Parks Highway corridor.
A highway resident who dumped ash from a burn barrel in the backyard on June 7 unintentionally started the blaze, which has burned through two houses and 14 outbuildings and cost the state about a half million dollars a day.
The fire is burning wilderness predominantly on the east side of the Parks Highway between Anderson and Nenana, which is 55 road miles southwest of Fairbanks.
Officials are scaling down the firefighting force, which hit its high point at 550 people, to 250 people with more reductions expected. The force is largely made up of hotshot crews, Saarloos said.
The fire service also moved their incident command center from the Nenana Student Living Center to a campground in Anderson.
Saarloos said wind gusts of up to 25 mph were “testing containment” near Anderson and Nenana.
“The mop up is holding,” she said, referring to laborious efforts to snuff out hot spots along the Parks Highway.
Justin Arnott of the National Weather Service predicted the weekend’s weather to mirror Friday.
“It’s been relatively dry, but each afternoon there’s a shot of a shower,” the forecaster said.
Arnott called for temperatures in the 70s and light to moderate winds from the southwest.
Air quality in Fairbanks was labeled moderate, which means people with respiratory problems should reduce prolonged or heavy exertion as smoke moves in and out of the area.
Air quality is expected to remain moderate or better throughout the weekend, said a statement from the Fairbanks North Star Borough.