Fairbanks, AK - Warm, dry and windy weather in the Fairbanks area over the weekend stoked the Stuart Creek 2 Wildfire burning east of Eielson Air Force Base. Richard Hadley is a public information officer with an incident management team from California assigned to the fire. He says officials are waiting on infrared data gathered during an overnight to map the fire. “As of [Sunday] night, the fire had grown from 40,000 to 64,570 acres. That number may go up as we get this better map data in,” says Hadley.
Firefighters have achieved five percent containment. But not before the blaze reached the Chena River and prompted an evacuation along Chena Hot Springs Road for residents between mileposts 18 and 34. “The fire made the Chena River from milepost 26 to 28," explains Hadley. "There were a few spot fires. One on an island in the river and another one across the river and those were both caught by engine and hand crews in the area that we had looking for them.” Hadley says there are 684 people working the fire including six hot shot crews. The Department of Defense has provided two Chinook helicopters. Hadley expects two black Hawk Helicopters from the National Guard to join the effort later today. He says 120 adults and 57 children evacuated Two Rivers and Pleasant Valley Sunday. Crews are continuing to secure more than 600 homes threatened by the blaze. “We’ve had crews in there for days taking measures to reduce fuels around homes," says Hadley. "In some locations we installed water tanks, hose line and sprinkler systems.”
Temperatures cooled overnight, and some rain did fall in the area. The wind could pick up this afternoon, but there is rain in the forecast. Christopher Cox is a forecaster with the National Weather Service in Fairbanks. “We do have a system coming up from the southeast which is going to increase our chances for rain showers in the area," Cox says. "We should expect a wind shift to more of the southwest which should help to take a lot of the heavy smoke out of the immediate Fairbanks area.”
Cox says the fire is large enough to make its own weather. But Cox says it isn’t causing problems for weather forecasters. “When you get that much smoke into the atmosphere, it will actually make its own cumulus clouds," he says. "So far, we haven’t had any lightning strikes and we don’t expect it in the future either.”
On Saturday night, officials from a number of different agencies held a community meeting in Two Rivers to address local concerns regarding the fire. Melinda Shore lives near milepost 21 along Chena Hot Springs Road. She attended the meeting. “They were trying to give us as much information as possible," she says. "Which is difficult to do given uncertainties around weather and how the fire is moving. They just sort of laid down the line and said if the fire reaches the river, at that point they will issue an evacuation notice.”
During Saturday night’s meeting, Shore says Army officials admitted to igniting the fire during an artillery training mission earlier this month. "At this point there will be time to lay blame later, and figure out who’s gonna pay for what and so forth," Shore says. "For the most part, people are concerned with what to do now and the logistics of getting out but there were a few people who felt strongly about that piece of information. There was some yelling, but not a lot."
Some mushers have moved their sled dogs to dog yards across the region. Other residents are taking livestock and other animals to the Tanana Valley State Fairgrounds. The University of Alaska, Fairbanks has opened its doors for evacuees. The Red Cross has set up an evacuation center at Weller Elementary School. Thick smoke settled in low lying valleys around Fairbanks overnight. Officials warn of unhealthy conditions for sensitive groups.