Operations are winding down across much of Alaska as rain has reduced fire activity and the need for firefighting resources — except in eastern Alaska, where conditions remain hot and dry.
Twelve BLM Alaska Fire Service smokejumpers were mobilized Monday night to protect an Alaska Native allotment along the Sheenjek River from the Christian Fire (#255), burning about 50 miles north of Fort Yukon. The fire has burned approximately 52,400 acres within the Yukon Flats National Wildlife Refuge and remains active. The area is often called a “donut hole,” a portion of the Yukon Flats where warm, dry weather persists even while the surrounding region is cooler and damp.
A large swath of highly flammable black spruce lies between the fire’s perimeter and both sides of the Sheenjek River. Firefighters from the Siskiyou Rappel Crew, based in Oregon, constructed a fire break around the allotment more than a week ago. Smokejumpers are now working to install pumps and hoses for a water-handling system to strengthen allotment protection efforts. Four smokejumpers will relocate today to protect a cabin about 2 miles north, on the west side of the Sheenjek River.
Even the Ptarmigan Complex near Central and Circle is now seeing substantiative rainfall. Crews there are focused on backhauling equipment and completing suppression repair work, including rehabilitation of a dozer line built during efforts on the now-extinguished Deadwood Fire.
Statewide, 405 wildfires have burned just under 1 million acres this season. In the Upper Yukon Zone, covering 51.9 million acres in northeastern Alaska, 57 fires have burned roughly 180,700 acres. Five fires were called out in the Zone Monday, while 32 remain active. The Zone also recorded 891 lightning strikes, most accompanied by rain.
Elsewhere in BLM AFS’s protection area, which spans the northern half of Alaska, fire activity continues to taper off. The Goldrun Complex of fires between Ambler and Kiana, the Roundabout Complex near Huslia, the Lush Fire near Rampart, and the Ninetyeight Fire north of the Salcha River southeast of Fairbanks are all wrapping up suppression efforts. Crews are backhauling gear and returning equipment to the BLM AFS Cache at Fort Wainwright.
For more information, contact BLM Alaska Fire Service Public Affairs Specialist Beth Ipsen at (907)356-5510 or eipsen@blm.gov.
With activity slowing, these updates on will be issued only when there is a significant change in the status of BLM AFS fires.
–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.
Categories: Active Wildland Fire, AK Fire Info
Alaska Wildland Fire Information 