Alaska News

Wildfires continue across Alaska, though containment efforts advance

Wildfires continued to burn across Alaska Friday, with new blazes popping up daily from humans and lightning.

The daily situation report from the Alaska Interagency Coordination Center said 28 new fires were burning Friday and more than 900,000 acres had burned so far this season in Alaska.

Along the Sterling Highway near Cooper Landing, the Juneau Lake fire and the Stetson Creek fire were both more than halfway contained, the U.S. Forest Service said. The Stetson Creek fire has burned 212 acres and the Juneau Lake Fire has burned 580 acres. The Card Street fire was contained at 40 percent by Friday.

The Sockeye fire in Willow was 96 percent contained by Friday afternoon. The fire burned 7,220 acres, according to the Incident Information System. On Friday, crews were working on very small sections of the uncontained perimeter of the fire close to the Susitna River, Willow Creek and Little Willow Creek.

On the Kenai Peninsula, a small holdover fire from last year's Funny River fire was spotted. Considerably small at only 0.3 acres, the fire was on the north shore of Tustumena Lake. The situation report said the fire was smoldering and creeping through tundra and grass. The spots are in monitor status.

Many other fires are continually being monitored and fought across the state, including the 3,500-acre Brown fire, the 300-acre Moose Creek fire, the 100 percent active Carlson Lake fire that's burned 3,000 acres and the Red Devil fire, which has burned 1,321 acres.

Megan Edge

Megan Edge is a former reporter for Alaska Dispatch and Alaska Dispatch News.

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