Lightning caused new wildfires in the hot Interior over the weekend, and others that started last week got big enough to close two major highways, one to Anchorage and one to the North Slope.
The Parks Highway between Healy and Anderson, or if you use a larger scale, between Fairbanks and Anchorage was closed part of Saturday, part of Sunday and may be closed today (Monday) as the Bear Creek Fire grows and jumps the road.
“It’s growing on the other side of the road now. It has made the jump,” said Pubic Information Officer Sam Harrell, speaking from a busy Alaska Fire Service office,
He said the fire jumped the highway on Saturday, near milepost 272, then again in a few places along corridor north of Denali National Park about 100 miles from Fairbanks.
The Parks Highway is a major artery between the Interior and SouthCentral, and closing it trapped commercial and residential traffic as well as tourists trying to get to Fairbanks for summer solstice weekend.
The Bear Creek Fire is now 26,000 acres. A handful of homes, cabins and other structures have burned.
Harrell says there are some short windows in which it is safe enough to get some vehicles through a twenty mile section of the Bear Creek Fire area, escorted by a Department of Transportation pilot vehicle.
“They’re holding traffic at (mileposts) 259 and 278. And then when its clear that they can see that there’s no flame in the roadway, then its safe for a pilot car to take a string of vehicles through," he said.
But the situation remains dynamic and motorists are waiting hours at each end.
The response on big fires like these has pulled resources from the Interior and Southcentral. Division of Forestry Public Information Officer Kale Casey has been documenting some of the fire fighting on video.
“ Okay, the big water tender is heading up to support a firing operation on the Parks Highway here, and so it's really nice to have all of our partners here, Air National Guard. We have our JBER engine up the road as well doing structure protection. We have Sutton, Anderson, Nenana, and other fire departments here,” Casey said.
At one point Sunday afternoon, trucks from all these departments were lined up on the highway to protect the Intertie. That also is an artery – but for electrical power, connecting the GoldenValley cooperative with railbelt utilities all the way to Bradley Lake dam off Kachemak Bay.
Rob Allen, the Northern Region Fire Management Officer for the Division of Forestry and Fire Protection says more fire fighters are coming, starting today.
“We've got a jet load of crews coming in from lower 48. There's four crews on that; we're getting two of those crews. There's another jet load coming in on Wednesday; we'll get two of those, and another jet load, I believe, on Friday," Allen said.
"We've also reached out to the state of Oregon. They've got some contract crews that they're gonna be sending up.”
Allen was hoping to hold an in-person briefing session for residents of the Haystack Mountain neighborhoods off the Elliot Highway north of Fairbanks. But the Himalaya Road Fire made him change plans as it grew to 3,319.21 acres on Sunday. Rangers and Alaska State Troopers went door to door Sunday afternoon to deliver evacuation orders.
Fairbanks North Star Borough Mayor Grier Hopkins was being interviewed Sunday night when the borough’s alert system pinged another evacuation.
“What sort of entrance and exit to various subdivisions are available? Like Himalaya Road and the Hayes Creek that we all just heard the alert for are one way in, one way out. So there's only one road accessing it. Because if the fire moves that way, they can't go,” Hopkins said.
Then Troopers and DOT closed the Elliot Highway – the road out of Fairbanks that connects to the Dalton and the industrial traffic headed to the Arctic.
DOT reports an average of 210 vehicles a day passing through there this time of year, and half of those are trucks. DOT posted Sunday night they hoped to have similar open windows when the Himalaya Road Fire cools enough to allow for sight distance that would let a pilot cars escort waiting vehicles.
The evacuations caused by the Himalaya Road Fire and a couple of other fires around Fairbanks means people need a place to take their animals. For both pets and livestock that are evacuated, there’s a new Fairbanks North Star Borough facility stood up at the new Emergency Operations building at 3175 Peger Road.
Sandy Hill is the Animal Control Manager. She has staff at the emergency shelter 24 hours a day during the fire activity. But so far, there has not been a demand, because she thinks evacuated pets are finding temporary homes with friends in the community.
“You know, we've only housed two dogs, in our shelter, and we haven't had any requests for any livestock,” Hill said.
She says there is room for livestock both at the new stand-up facility, and overflow at the Animal Shelter building. But evacuated pets will be cared for at the emergency shelter, so they don’t mix with animals waiting for adoption at the regular Animal Shelter.
It was cooler on Sunday, with less lightning and is predicted to be cloudier and cooler Monday and Tuesday.
