Posted on 08/20/2019 1:12:45 AM PDT by tired&retired
Fire crews battling the McKinley fire faced some of the worst firefighting conditions for the second day in a row Sunday.
The Division of Forestry reports more than 50 structures have already been lost. The fire jumped the Parks Highway late Sunday afternoon from the east to the west side near mile 88.
Currently, all homes in the Hidden Hills and Caswell Lakes area are under an evacuation notice.
Hope Sara and family are ok in Wassilla. The smoke here in Anchorage is horrible. Same was true in Seward yesterday.
Prayers for all the people losing homes.
The fires in Alaska are pretty bad right now.
Heartbreaking story.
Will prayers their way.
Alaska Department of Transportation says traffic is moving slowly between milepost 71 to milepost 99 with the help of a pilot car.
Authorities say drivers should expect significant delays and if possible they should avoid the area.
Praying for RAIN and respite in the last frontier!
Update 10:30 PM Monday Alaska time, 2:30 am Tuesday eastern time
The Alaska Type 2 Interagency Incident Management Team assumed management of the fire Monday evening. The addition of a dozen engines from Fairbanks and two crews from the Lower 48 in the next 24 hours are expected give a good boost to the firefighting effort. With the additional resources, fire managers will be adding a night shift to patrol the subdivisions in the fire area.
The McKinley Fire, which began Saturday near Milepost 91 of the Parks Highway is estimated at 3,012 acres. Fueled by north winds gusting to 35 miles per hour, it quickly moved south on Sunday, burning along both sides of the Parks Highway corridor for 7 miles. An estimated 50 structures were destroyed by the fire.
The Alaska Department of Public Safety, State Fire Marshal and Alaska State Troopers are working with the Alaska Division of Forestry and Matanuska Susitna Borough to get a better estimate of structures burned and determine how many were residences.
Zero containment at this time.
The Alaska Railroad has been working to remove downed trees and debris from along the tracks and expects to resume full service by Wednesday.
More photos and maps are here at Wildfire Today:
https://wildfiretoday.com/2019/08/19/mckinley-fire-burns-50-structures-south-of-talkeetna-alaska/
I know Alaska has been warmer and drier than normal since at least January.
Strange - here in Seattle we have been normal to cooler than normal for most of 2019.
Last year (or maybe 2017, I forget) we had smoke haze from British Columbia fires for the whole summer.
DANG IT !!! What a mess.
Praying for Everyone involved Civilians and Fire Crews and the Wildlife. I know most of Y’All depend on the Wild Critters large and small for food supply.
We lost close to half the ranch back in 2011 from a couple of fires. We were in a hard drought back then, barely had enough water to fight the fires. The helo’s were pulling from the stock ponds which were almost dry. We lost a couple of old structures that were built back in the late 1800’s but the main house was saved. We’d already lost around 80 head of cattle from the drought and the fire took out most of the productive pasture. Most of the damage was fencing and had to replace just under 20 miles. We were lucky, we have most of the equipment needed for fighting a small fire but this one was just too big, fire was two miles wide by the time it hit the ranch. 14 square miles of pasture was lost! It was probably the best thing that could have happen to the ranch, it needed a good burn. Many of our forests are the same way, fire rejuvenates growth and takes down overgrowth that that just takes up space and provides little in the way of food source. The problem is it rarely happens without loss of property, even worse is the loss of life. Those area’s will come back stronger and more productive than they’ve been in years.
I'm so sorry to learn of the fires in your state and what you're going through. Will keep you and all Alaskans in my thoughts and prayers for your safety.
I agree Dusty. Just read about how the fire promotes good grass for grazing afterward.
Guess God does the same thing to renew us.
Prayers work... Please pray for rain...
After praying that God’s Will Be Done.
I agree. The beauty is spectacular and the people too.
I’m just a visitor here.. But could easily spend summers here. Takes a real special person to spend the winters.
Saw many Beluga whales yesterday in Turnaround Arm off Cook Inlet by Anchorage. Beauty at best.
I live in Big Lakeat about mile 51 of the Parks Highway, the winds dued down and a cold front moved in, its 41f outside st 4am, smoke is really bad as it’s just just hanging in the air. The next couple of days will be cooler, around 65f. Its an absolute tinderbox everywhere with very little rain and above normal temps the last two months.
Over 50 structures were lost, many had only minutes to flee, evac centers are filling up in nearby Wasilla.
The military is assisting with water drops now, it was too windy when the fires started, there was many tree on powerline fires all through the Valley i was hearing on my scanner.
Fire departments were maxed out.
Its not the worst fire i have seen, i nearly lost my home back in 1996 to the Millers Reach fire, that was a bad one.
Hopefully rain will come, it is supposedly the rainy season now. I have to go to work in a bit, i painted a concrete mixer yesterday and i have to remove the tape but then I’m heading back home, schools are cancelled, smoke is very bad.
Fort Richardson, Alaska, was my first Army post after Basic and AIT and I loved it; came within a whisker of becoming a game warden in Alaska. I remember that the motto used by the tourism bureau back then was, “Once you visit Alaska, a part of you never leaves” - and truer words were never spoken.
Back in 2015, while vacationing in the rocky Mountains of Colorado, the smoke from Alaska fires was so bad we had to go on over into Utah.
A weather front was blowing all that smoke right down the Front Range of the mountains.
I’m in the middle of Mark Twain Nat Forest and can’t wait to get a pond dug on the top end of the property. I’m in the Ozarks so the terrain is rough which makes fire fighting hard.
Several years ago we were in a drought and my neighbor is the most careless person when it comes to burning off his property, which is mostly forest. He set it ablaze one time and then went to town, in the next county. The fire almost got to some other neighbor’s houses. They had dozers and helicopters out here. I live up wind from him when the wind is SW. That particular time it was out of the South and it stayed on his side of the road.
A couple of years ago he had a health scare. Passed out due to low blood oxygen levels. Now he doesn’t burn anymore. I’m slowly converting away from forest in my property but have a ways to go.
Aside from that neighbor, we have a lot of what I call weekenders. People from St Louis mostly that own recreational property here. They come down and ride around on 4 wheelers, visit each other and drink a few. Hopefully none will get drunk some weekend and set the forest on fire. They older one’s seem sane but sometimes their 20-something kids will come down by themselves.
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