The Isom Creek wildfire along the Dalton Highway, continues to grow. Fire information officer Sam Harrel says winds Wednesday pushed the blaze away from the highway and Trans-Alaska Pipeline, while causing substantial growth on the fire’s northeast perimeter.
"As a result of that we are in 10,618 acres.”
Harrel says that portion of the fire pushed into a 2004 burn scar, but also toward a Native land allotment with cabins, along the Yukon River.
"The Pioneer Peak Hotshot crew were in there, and they constructed a fireline around the allotment and set up sprinkler systems around the cabin, in anticipation of the fire coming.”
Harrel says the crew conducted a burn out and activated the sprinklers, successfully defending the allotment, but that there are others along that stretch of river. About 300 people are working the lightning caused blaze, the largest staffed fire in the state.