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Smokejumpers, helitack crew and aircraft fighting Otter Fire

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Twenty smokejumpers and four firefighters from a helitack crew are working to contain the Otter Fire (#344) with support from multiple aircraft.

Aerial photo showing wildfire smoke rising from a forested area with a creek on the right side of the image.
The Otter Fire was reported on Friday, June 27. The fire was caused by lightning and is burning about 50 miles northeast of Venetie along Otter Creek. Jamie Mayor, BLM Alaska Smokejumpers

The lightning-caused fire was reported Friday morning. It is burning along the north side of a canyon above Otter Creek about 50 miles northeast of Venetie. Firefighters set up pumps and hoses today as they worked the northern edge along the head of the fire.

Four single-engine water scooper planes and two helicopters, supported by an air attack plane, worked throughout the day to slow the fire’s spread with repeated water drops. A tanker was also called in to drop retardant to slow the fire down.

Firefighters reported dry conditions today with fire behavior that ranged from torching to smoldering.

The Upper Yukon Zone saw thousands of lightning strikes over the past 48 hours. New fires from those strikes – like the Otter Fire – may be detected in the coming days as warmer, drier conditions settle into the northern Interior.

-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. 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.

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Categories: Active Wildland Fire, AK Fire Info, BLM Alaska Fire Service

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