Alaska wildfires pick up steam

By The Associated Press

E-mail this article Print this article Search archive Most read articles Most e-mailed articles

Flames jumped the Steese Highway running from Fairbanks to Central on Monday, virtually surrounding about 100 residents and visitors in the mining town. People living north of Central have been evacuated to the town.

The fire's flames were up to 150 feet high, said Andy Alexandrou, a fire-information officer at the Alaska Interagency Coordination Center at Fort Wainwright.

The 64,700-acre Bolgen Creek fire was burning to the northeast, about six miles from Central. The 29,500-acre Crazy fire is approaching from the northwest, Alexandrou said. The Wolf Creek fire also is within six miles of Central.

The three fires, totaling about 260,000 acres, are being fought together as the Central Complex fires.

Jerry Rogers, manager of the Circle Hot Springs resort south of Central, was on his way out the door about 8 p.m. Monday after telling guests to head for the airport nearby.

The airstrip was deemed the safest place because of the wide swatch of land cleared for it.

"It's [the fire] a mile wide and coming toward the Circle Hot Springs right now," Rogers told the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner. "We're closing down the hotel. I've locked up the bar."

Dawn Foster, who lives next to the airport, watched the fire from her home.

"The fire activity started to increase due to some high winds Saturday, and by Sunday it had become very extreme and today they're calling it unpredictable," she said.

"There's a plume of smoke on the Steese Highway that rises in the air approximately a mile to two miles in the air."
 
The weather isn't forecast to give Central a break until today.

Alexandrou said it's predicted to be partly cloudy, and there's a chance of isolated thunderstorms in the afternoon.

Elsewhere, in Washington state about 40 homes remained evacuated yesterday because of a wildfire that had grown to about 500 acres. About 400 firefighters were battling the Fischer fire, which started Sunday evening about 20 miles northwest of Wenatchee.

Twenty homes in Derby Canyon and 18 homes in Williams Canyon were evacuated, said Robin DeMario, spokeswoman for the Okanogan and Wenatchee national forests. No structures had burned.

The Red Cross opened a shelter at a middle school in Leavenworth. Air tankers were dropping thousands of gallons of retardant, and helicopters were called in to drop water on the edges of the fire and on hot spots.