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Firefighters subdue T’eedriinjik Fire near Venetie as cooler, wetter weather moves across the state

By BLM Alaska Fire Service on July 26, 2024

Firefighters and water-dropping aircraft successfully subdued fire activity on the T’eedriinjik Fire (#380) burning northwest of Venetie on Thursday. Friday’s cloudy, cooler weather is helping firefighters working to contain the fire along a two-track trail leading from the village. The fire exhibited extreme behavior Wednesday night, expanding from five to about 22 acres.

Smoke from a forest fire burning next to a wide braided rivers drifts up from the ground. — The T’eedriinjik Fire (#380) is burning next to a trail about 2 miles northwest of Venetie. This photo was taken from an airplane flying over the fire after it became very active on July 24, 2024. Photo by Alaska Division of Forestry & Fire Protection.

BLM Alaska Fire Service specialists, 12 smokejumpers, and the BLM Type 2 contact Mooseheart Crew are effectively extinguishing hot spots and removing hazardous trees. An aerial firefighter helped coordinate the efforts on Thursday, using an infrared camera to find hot spots.

Firefighters corralled a 17.5-acre spot fire that developed that night and are conducting grid searches to extinguish hot spots. The BLM AFS North Star Crew mobilized to the fire Friday, and the Clear Water Crew moved from the Marten Fire (#383) south of Venetie, which was contained and controlled this morning.

There are now 70 people assigned to the T’eedriinjik Fire.

Four fires ignited in Alaska on Thursday and Friday — most were lightning-caused fires burning in remote parts of Central and Southwestern Alaska. Fire managers remain vigilant for new ignitions from the recent widespread lightning in Alaska. There were about 5,300 strikes on Wednesday, more than 2,000 on Thursday, but only 41 recorded by 5:30 p.m. Friday.

Dots on a map of Alaska marking where lightning strikes were recorded. — About 7,300 lightning strikes were recorded across Alaska Wednesday and Thursday as thunderstorms rolled through the state according to the BLM Lightning Detection Network. You can see for yourself on the Alaska Wildland Fire Information map at https://ow.ly/h51O50SLrJ2 under the lightning tab.

Cool and wet conditions are expected to continue through next week, dampening Interior fires that have been very active with the hot weather. Hopefully, it will help limit new fire starts and development.

There are still 156 active fires in Alaska Friday. To date, 360 fires have burned an estimated 626,576 acres.

Contact BLM Alaska Fire Service Public Affairs Specialist Beth Ipsen at (907)356-5510 or eipsen@blm.gov for more information.

-BLM-

Bureau of Land Management, Alaska Fire Service, P.O. Box 35005 1541 Gaffney Road, Fort Wainwright, Ak 99703

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The Bureau of Land Management Alaska Fire Service (AFS) located at Fort Wainwright, Alaska, provides wildland fire suppression services for over 240 million acres of Department of the Interior and Native Corporation Lands in Alaska. In addition, AFS has other statewide responsibilities that include: interpretation of fire management policy; oversight of the BLM Alaska Aviation program; fuels management projects; and operating and maintaining advanced communication and computer systems such as the Alaska Lightning Detection System. AFS also maintains a National Incident Support Cache with a $23 million inventory. The Alaska Fire Service provides wildland fire suppression services for America’s “Last Frontier” on an interagency basis with the State of Alaska Department of Natural Resources, USDA Forest Service, National Park Service, Bureau of Indian Affairs, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, and the U.S. Military in Alaska.