By AMANDA BOHMAN
Fairbanks Daily News-Miner (Alaska)
Copyright 2006 MediaNews Group, Inc. and Fairbanks Publishing Company, Inc.
Weather continued to favor firefighters battling a 70,000-acre wildland fire, which is 45 percent contained, fire information officer Tom Kempton said.
The fire is burning forest primarily on the east side of the Parks Highway between Anderson and Nenana, which is 55 road miles southwest of Fairbanks.
“Fire activity remained low today,” Kempton said late Saturday.
Storm clouds towered over the fire zone from the north and from the south as Kempton spoke, he said.
Officials released some equipment, bulldozers and Nodwells--tracked vehicles that can maneuver over a wide variety of terrain--from the fire. They also made plans for removing some of the 75 miles of fire hose protecting dozens of houses that were in the fire’s path. Kempton said they also suspended the nightly community meetings in Nenana and Anderson.
But the force of 550 firefighters will remain in place for the time being, Kempton said. Officials will also continue to broadcast regular fire updates on KIAM and maintain the fire information Web site, which is www.parkshighwayfire.com.
“This fire is not completely out,” Kempton said. “It will probably be winter and layers of snow before this thing is completely extinguished.”
Conditions in the fire area will be cloudy today with scattered showers and isolated thunderstorms in the afternoon, said Bob Fischer, a forecaster with the National Weather Service in Fairbanks.
The high is expected to be 75 degrees, and Fischer expects winds from the southwest at 5 mph. The same is forecast for Monday but with less shower activity, Fischer said.
A reduced speed limit of 55 mph remains in the fire zone, which is between 298 Mile and 302 Mile Parks Highway. Alaska State Troopers are writing tickets, Kempton said.
The Alaska Fire Service continues to monitor fires elsewhere in the Interior, including a 14,000-acre blaze south of Birch Lake, in which no change was reported Saturday.
A lightning-caused fire 32 miles east of Arctic Village grew to more than 7,000 acres, according to a fire incident report. A lightning-caused fire 120 miles northeast of Fort Yukon grew to 6,400 acres, the report stated.