After the Yukon Creek Fire (#296) burning north of the Salcha River picked up new life over the weekend, 12 smokejumpers deployed Monday night to protect nearby cabins.
Aided by a helicopter from the Alaska Division of Forestry and Fire Protection’s Delta Area, the BLM Alaska Fire Service smokejumpers are keeping an eye on the fire as it slowly backs against an easterly wind. DOF will also occasionally use an airplane to monitor the 13,000-acre fire burning north of the Salcha River since June 17. Thanks to warm, dry weather, the fire became active as it burns in black spruce trees and toward a cabin ¾-mile to the southeast.
Weather conditions are predicted to turn cooler and wetter today through the weekend to hopefully moderate fire activity. While it won’t be enough to put the fire out, it won’t likely be as active now that the daylight hours are getting shorter and fall moves in to the Interior. It will take a significant amount of rain or snow – what is considered a season-ending weather event – to put the fire out.
Until then, firefighters will continue to protect the cabins as needed.
Contact the Alaska Interagency Wildfire Information Officer at (907)356-5511 for more information.
Categories: Active Wildland Fire, AK Fire Info, Alaska DNR - Division of Forestry (DOF)
Alaska Wildland Fire Information 