Update, 10:35 a.m. Tuesday:
Alaska's type 1 incident management team, a designation that denotes the most highly trained responders, is taking charge of fire suppression efforts along the front of the Sockeye Fire, according to a briefing from Matanuska-Susitna Borough officials.
Officials also warned that thunderstorms forecast for the region today would be followed by "gusty, erratic" winds, and cautioned against driving in areas obscured by smoke.
"If driving is unavoidable," officials wrote, "be careful in low visibility areas, watching for other traffic as well as animals."
Update, 7:30 a.m., Tuesday, Palmer:
The Alaska State Fair grounds is accepting horses displaced by the Sockeye Fire, according to an announcement distributed overnight by the fair's communications manager, Kelly Larson. The fair has not been asked by the Matanuska-Susitna Borough Department of Emergency Services but is accepting horses until stalls are full, Larson said. Borough animal control has a list of designated animal shelters. The fair will post more information on its Facebook page and website if the situation changes and its role expands.
Larson, herself a Willow resident, sent out the information overnight after she evacuated from the fire.
Update, 6:15 a.m. Tuesday:
The Parks Highway remained open early Tuesday morning with alternating traffic, of about 30- to 60-vehicle convoys going both directions, Mat-Su Emergency Services Director Bill Gamble said.
Gamble said Alaska State Troopers are positioned along the highway to help prevent drivers from leaving the convoys to travel into unsafe neighborhoods.
Update, 6:05 a.m. Tuesday:
Few details were immediately available, but Alaska State Troopers said a home in the evacuation area of the Sockeye Fire was broken into Monday.
Troopers wrote in an online dispatch that they received the report of the break-in, at a home off West Sunnyslope Way in Willow, shortly after 5:30 p.m. Monday.
Troopers eventually determined that the burglary occurred earlier that morning, at about 2 a.m. An investigation remains open and troopers ask anyone who might have information about the break-in to contact them.
"Unfortunately, nearly every time we have a disaster that requires evacuations there is a potential for individuals to loot the empty properties," trooper spokeswoman Megan Peters wrote Tuesday morning. "We do have two Wildlife Troopers patrolling out there to hopefully deter any criminal activities."
Original story:
Officials monitoring the Sockeye Fire burning near the Parks Highway in the Willow area revised the estimated size of the blaze downward by about 1,000 acres early Tuesday morning, while the Parks Highway was again open to limited traffic.
While earlier estimates put the size of the fire at about 8,500 acres, a new aerial survey yielded the more precise figure of 7,585 acres, Matanuska-Susitna Borough officials said. (The Alaska Forestry Division produced a slightly different estimate of 7,555 acres.)
The borough released a new map showing the fire's extent to accompany the revised estimate.
In response to a Facebook query about the new lower number, an administrator at the borough's Facebook page wrote: "When GIS worked their magic, and actual fire could be flown we got a new number.. and not as bad, but it may go back up tomorrow."
The borough also said the Parks Highway was open early Tuesday, with pilot vehicles leading about 20 cars at a time through the fire area -- though officials warned that no stopping in the affected area was allowed, and the road could be closed again.