Crews work to contain wildfire near Pilot Point; blaze no longer a threat to village

Firefighters are working to contain a wildfire that began spreading Monday afternoon just a few miles north of Pilot Point, according to the Alaska Division of Forestry.

The fire is estimated to have spread at least 500 acres by Tuesday morning, but it no longer poses a threat to the village, the division wrote in an online statement.

Pilot Point, located on the Alaska Peninsula, is home to about 65 people.

The fire was reported just after 1 p.m. Monday when a fire burning in a dump spread onto tundra grass, the forestry division said.

“Villagers tried to control the fire but southeast winds of 15-20 mph thwarted those efforts and the village requested help from the Division of Forestry,” forestry officials said.

Twelve smokejumpers — wildland firefighters who deploy by parachute — arrived in the area Monday afternoon, the division said. An airtanker from Palmer also dropped retardant along a portion of the fire Monday, according to forestry officials.

The smokejumpers burned an area alongside a road at the edge of town to prevent the wildfire from spreading into the village Monday, said Tim Mowry, a spokesman with the Division of Forestry Wildland Fire & Aviation Program.

“What they’re doing is they’re burning all the fuel between the road and the main fire so that the fire is not getting up ahead of steam as it comes to that road and has a chance to jump across that road,” he said.

The crew worked until midnight and started again at 7 a.m. Tuesday, Mowry said. They finished burning alongside the road Tuesday and there was no longer a threat to the village by morning, he said.

A crew of 21 wildland firefighters was flying to the area Tuesday afternoon to help contain the blaze and relieve some of the initial responders, Mowry said.

The blaze was about 30% contained by Tuesday afternoon, Mowry said. The fire was most active on the northeast and northwest sides Tuesday afternoon.

“That northern side, they really haven’t done much there — they were focused on the southern part along the road because that was the closest to the village, closest to the airport, the dump and the infrastructure there,” Mowry said. “They wanted to get that all protected and taken care of and now they can sort of refocus on the more active parts that are burning.”

Mowry said it was too early to estimate when the blaze might be fully contained.

The fire in Pilot Point was the first significant wildfire in Alaska this year, the Division of Forestry said. Prior to this blaze, only about 60 acres had burned as a result of 94 fires.

The National Weather Service issued a dense smoke advisory for the Bristol Bay area, including King Salmon, Dillingham, Pilot Point and Naknek. Smoke from the fires was expected to reduce visibility and could cause difficulty breathing for people with respiratory problems.