The Card Street fire on the Kenai Peninsula in Alaska has grown to 9,000 acres,

[Blue_In_AK]

but is moving into the Kenai wildlife refuge and away from subdivisions, which is good. The fire near Willow is still raging. Twenty-six homes and many more structures have been destroyed. A total of 56 fires are burning around the state.


http://www.adn.com/article/20150618/major-blazes-keep-burning-firefighters-battle-smaller-wildfires-across-alaska

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The Healy Lake fire, west of Delta Junction and Fort Greely in Alaska's Interior, was ignited by lightning on Tuesday and had grown to about 2,000 acres by Thursday morning, according to a situation report from the Alaska Interagency Coordination Center. Air tankers spent most of Wednesday trying to protect cabins in the area with fire retardant. Thirty-eight people are working the fire and additional hot shot crews were expected to arrive Thursday, the report said.

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In Southcentral Alaska, two fires near Montana Creek had burned about 3.8 acres between them and were both under control by Wednesday, the report said. Crews planned to check for hotspots Thursday.

The Stetson Creek Fire, which was started by lightning Tuesday night along the Sterling Highway on the Kenai Peninsula, had consumed about 300 acres by Thursday, the report said. Crews worked Wednesday to protect structures in the Cooper Landing area. The Cooper Creek Campground was also evacuated, and will remain closed to the public.

Just across the Sterling Highway, the Juneau Lake Fire appeared to be heading north, pushed by winds out of the south. According to the report, the fire has consumed 150 acres. Three U.S. Forest Service cabins are threatened.

Gwin’s Lodge seasonal employee Cody Cates said there is “definitely concern” about the Cooper Landing fires.

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Air quality in Anchorage is really bad today. To California, hopefully we can get some hotshot crews back down to you soon.

[blm]

1. Sorry, Blue. You're still in our thoughts.

Not easy being in Alaska or the Carolinas these days.

[Blue_In_AK]

2. I know.

I hesitated to even post an update on the fires since South Carolina's tragedy last night. There's just too much pain and sadness.

[uppityperson]

3. We've one started in the Olympics, still small, but I was thinking about you all up there, hoping

your fires had slowed down the spread.

[Blue_In_AK]

4. It's so pretty down there.

I hope it doesn't spread. Have you had rain down there? Alaska is very dry right now, and the long-term forecast is for hot and dry the rest of the month. It's 77 right now, but will probably hit 80 again today, which is just ridiculous since it should be about 65 and drizzly this time of year.

[uppityperson]

5. We've had normal rain, but minimal snow. The mts are almost bare except for the highest

There is WAY less snow than I see usually in August. We've no worries about our well since we are not dependent upon the snowpack, but there will be shortages many places for those who are. We are watering the grass near the house to keep it green in case of fire, rather than starting the first of August. The woods are dry, there is quite the potential for problems this year.

The fire is currently367 acres, up a steep area so they are watching it. I think they are bringing some people in to work on directing it rather than just letting it go. There are not homes nearby so that helps.

http://www.thenewstribune.com/2015/06/16/3842716_paradise-fire-burns-about-250.html?rh=1

[nadinbrzezinski]

10. Don't, at least some of us can multi task

[jwirr]

6. The animals are in big trouble. And there is little that can be done about that.

[Blue_In_AK]

7. This is very near where the 156,000 acre Funny River fire was last year.

It is very sad for the animals.

[roguevalley]

8. I shudder to think about baby moose trying to run away. Birds in trees, squirrels. So immense

the tragedy of fires. Take care, Blue and everyone else everywhere too

[Ex Lurker]

9. Willow is where they've been trying to move the AK state capitol for years

Guess they need to reconsider that.

[malaise]

11. This is huge

Hope you get some rain

[madokie]

12. Brother said they've had to drive though some of the smoke

they've been in the Seward and Homer area these last couple days. I've been following along via google and pictures

Had reindeer sausage for breakfast yesterday and moose soup for lunch. Lots of good eats is what he's bringing away from their trip. Beautiful Scenery, wonderful people and good eats. How much better can a vacation be?
Heading home tomorrow evening. I think he said it would be a 6 and 1/2 hour flight.

[Gormy Cuss]

13. Is this a particularly bad fire year in AK?

The number of active fires sounds very high but IDK what is typical.

[Blue_In_AK]

15. It isn't really a particularly bad year yet,

but what is worrisome is how close they are to populated areas. I saw pictures of the Kenai Keys subdivision with a huge wall of fire immediately behind it. It's really remarkable and a testament to the hard work of the firefighters that the whole subdivision didn't go up in flames.

The worst fire years since I've been in Alaska were 2004 and 2005 when 11 million acres burned in the state. Most of that was in the wilderness, though, and didn't particularly impact populated areas except for the awful air quality. In 1996 we had the Miller's Reach fire, also in the Mat-Su Valley near Wasilla, that burned 37,000 acres and destroyed hundreds of homes. That was the most destructive fire as far as dollars and cents are concerned.

Here are a couple of images I pulled off the internet.

[madfloridian]

14. Following your posts on this, Blue.

So sorry about the fires.