The Nelchina Glacier Fire (#226), 4 miles south of Eureka Roadhouse on the Glenn Highway, showed moderate growth overnight, growing an additional 450 acres. Fire managers continue to utilize a variety of resources including both ground and aerial resources to keep the fire from spreading across the Eureka Creek drainage to the west. With varied, strong and gusty winds throughout the day, the fire spread in multiple directions causing fire mangers to reevaluate their suppression tactics in order to provide for the safety of our firefighters while still aggressively fighting the fire.
The northern fire perimeter continued to be the most active throughout the day and moved to the north towards Eureka Creek. Water drops from helicopters working the fire kept the fire from crossing the creek and potentially impacting structures on the southside of The Glenn Highway. The fire is approximately ½ mile from the nearest point of the creek bottom and is the highest priority on the fire. Multi-engine water scooping planes arrived late in the afternoon and dropped multiple loads of water on this area to keep the fire from entering the drainage.
Structure protection is 90% complete and crews continue to install pumps and hose lays on the fuel breaks completed by the masticator yesterday. The masticator has completed 100% of the assigned target areas on state lands, south of structures on the southside of the Glenn Highway and was released at the end of shift yesterday.
Due to the complexity, size and potential of the fire, at Type 3 incident commander has arrived at the fire and will assume command of the incident today. Additional crews have also been ordered to assist in meeting suppression objectives and to help keep the fire from crossing Eureka Creek drainage and impacting structures on the south side of Glenn Highway. To accommodate the growing fire fighting operation, a new incident command post (ICP) has been established to the south along the Glenn Highway. As we enter a busy time for weekend traffic, the public using the Glenn Highway is encouraged to slow down around the fire area and ICP in order to provide safety for our firefighters.
A community meeting for the communities affected by the Nelchina Glacier River will be held at the Mendeltna Community Chapel in Nelchina at 6:00 pm, On Tuesday, July 01. The public is encouraged to attend as fire managers will be on hand to answer any fire related questions and update the public on planned firefighting operations.
Categories: Active Wildland Fire, AK Fire Info, Alaska DNR - Division of Forestry (DOF)
Alaska Wildland Fire Information 