Wildfire rages near Meadow Lakes

UPDATE, 7 a.m. Thursday: Fire officials said Thursday morning that the fire remained at about 30 acres and was surrounded by a "wet line," after firefighters worked through the night. Read the latest updates here.

MEADOW LAKES -- A grass fire fueled by strong, erratic winds and unusually dry conditions had burned an estimated 30 acres of grass, brush and black spruce north of Meadow Lakes by Wednesday night as crews worked to contain it.

The fire, initially estimated at 3 to 5 acres, was spotted by a pilot Wednesday at about 2:30 p.m. burning at the end of Sunset Drive, off Schrock Road and 2 miles north of Pittman Road. Initial reports described flames as high as 100 feet and torching in thick spruce. By 3 p.m., flames shot off small clumps of trees as a helicopter began dumping water on hot spots.

The fire grew to about 10 acres by 3:45 p.m., according to Ken Barkley, deputy director of Matanuska-Susitna Borough emergency services. The fire was dubbed the Sunrise Fire after a road near where the burn started. As of about 7:15 p.m., it was 60 percent contained, said Norm McDonald, a Palmer-based state fire management officer.

The fire was burning not far from the Bench Lake trailhead, a dirt road off Bernie Circle. Breezy winds of 5-10 mph -- along with gusts up to 20 mph -- were pushing the fire north-northeast Wednesday afternoon, but no homes were immediately threatened.

Authorities said the fire was human-caused but said a state fire prevention officer has just started investigating.

The area is often used as an informal shooting range, according to Mark Randash, who lives in one of the homes closest to the fire but still a few miles away. Randash said he told fire officials that he encountered several people at the fire's start and provided their license plate numbers as well. The ground near where the fire started was covered with spent casings and shells. Several targets had been propped on stumps on a low rise.

[Stories and photos: Alaska's 2015 wildfires]

Accessing the fire proved tricky; tankers and other apparatus had to navigate more than a mile up an old dirt logging road.

An Alaska Division of Forestry helicopter dumped water on flaring spruce and a Conair CV580 air tanker dropped several loads of red fire retardant. A second helicopter was ordered for the evening but later canceled. Pilots were warned to avoid the area due to firefighting aircraft.

Mat-Su Borough fire crews, including the Central Mat-Su and West Lakes fire departments, responded to the blaze along with firefighters from the Alaska Division of Forestry. Sixteen members of the Gannett Glacier crew, a team of initial-attack state wildland firefighters based in Palmer, arrived at the fire around 4 p.m. with another 11 members of the Pioneer Peak interagency hot shot crew expected to join them, according to a borough update. People will stay at the fire overnight, McDonald said.

Dave Poppert, who owns a saw mill on nearby Pittman Road, was one of the few non-responders who got close enough to the fire to get a good look. Poppert was checking on a 100-acre timber sale he was logging in the heart of the burned zone, with about 50 acres uncleared and many unfilled orders for log homes and other items.

He didn't like what he saw: smoke and flames that indicated at least part of the sale area was a total loss.

"We've got tens of thousands of dollars on the books on order for that timber that was going to come off that sale," Poppert said. "Hopefully we've got enough to fulfill the orders we're committed to. Otherwise we're screwed."

Mat-Su is under a high fire danger warning due to scarce precipitation, according to McDonald. Small fires can quickly get out of control, fueled by dry grass and brush.

"It does not take much to get a fire started," he said.

The forecast did call for some showers Thursday and into the night, which could add some moisture, McDonald said. "Then it's looking like after that it's a long spell of potentially warmer weather."

Hope Miller and Suzanna Caldwell contributed to this story from Anchorage.