With an increase in fire activity across the State, State and Federal firefighting resources are becoming difficult to order because they have been assigned to other incidents throughout the state. Working with the Alaska State Emergency Operations Center and the Alaska National Guard, fire fighting resources from the Guard have been assigned to support fires across the State of Alaska.
The National Guard has deployed a UH60 Blackhawk Helicopter to assist with water dropping on the 750-acre Nelchina Glacier Fire (#226), 4 miles southeast of the Eureka Roadhouse on the Glenn Highway. The helicopter and the 3 service members are capable of dropping 700 gallons of water per bucket drop. The large amount of aerial-delivered water allows firefighters on the ground to cool the fire perimeter and decrease the spread of the fire. Spot drops in static locations also allow firefighters the opportunity to cool off areas of intense heat and minimize the potential for future fire spread.
In addition, a National Guard water tender and support vehicle with 5 service members has been assigned to the Bear Creek Fire (#237), 15 miles north of Healy, Alaska. A water tender is a vital component in fire suppression as it is capable of carrying hundreds of gallons of water to the fire line to fill other more mobile fire engines, refill portable folding tanks for helicopters to fill buckets from and to support pump stations and hose lays firefighters use to secure and mop up the fire line.
Categories: Active Wildland Fire, Alaska DNR - Division of Forestry (DOF), Alaska National Guard
Alaska Wildland Fire Information 