No injuries reported as fire destroys two buildings in Kivalina

A fire broke out in two buildings in Kivalina on Tuesday afternoon, led to a prolonged power outage and prompted evacuations for nearly half of the village, Northwest Arctic Borough officials said.

Alaska State Troopers received a report that the Kivalina bingo hall was on fire at around 12:50 p.m., troopers spokesman Tim DeSpain said. The community center, an adjacent building, also caught fire, he said. The local fire crew used water from the old school’s water tank to contain the fire, DeSpain said.

No injuries have been reported so far, borough Director of Public Safety Chris Hatch said. He said around 2:30 p.m. Tuesday that borough volunteer firefighters had responded to the fire. The blaze was contained by early evening, Hatch said.

“Kids and elders are being moved to the new school, where there is separate power and infrastructure,” Hatch said Tuesday afternoon. The new Kisimġiugtuq School is located 7 miles inland from Kivalina and serves as an evacuation site for the village, which often has to contend with strong Bering Sea storms.

In a town of about 450, the school hosted about 200 people on Tuesday night, said Terri Walker, Northwest Arctic Borough School District: superintendent.

Crews worked into the evening Tuesday to extinguish the fire, DeSpain said.

Troopers were coordinating a response with the State Fire Marshal’s Office, DeSpain said.

An incident response team — including representatives from the borough, NANA Corp., Maniilaq Association and Teck Alaska, which operates Red Dog Mine — was on its way to Kivalina to get a full assessment of the fire situation on the ground and to begin mitigation efforts, Hatch said Tuesday afternoon.

Multiple Kivalina residents said the new community building was the main gathering spot for holiday activities.

“The new community gathering building was destroyed almost instantly after catching fire,” said Frances Douglas, whose son volunteered to respond to the fire. “It was only mere feet away, as well as a duplex for two families on other side.”

Resident Kirk Koenig said an excavator operator demolished the bingo hall to stop the fire from spreading.

The bingo hall is located in front of the Alaska Village Electric Cooperative’s power plant. The power plant’s operator announced over the VHF radio that the village will be without power for the remainder of the week, resident Emma Ruth said.

“All power have been shut off,” Koenig said Tuesday. “With power plant on an emergency shut down, I believe we’ll have no cell service as well.”

The response team along with AVEC flew in technicians and linemen who restored power to parts of the community around noon on Wednesday, Hatch said. With power partially restored, some of the residents were expected to be able to return to their homes.

A winter storm was forecast to bring blowing snow and winds as high as 45 mph to the Kivalina area from Wednesday morning into Thursday. The conditions were expected to reduce visibility and make travel challenging.

Hatch said the storm was expected to limit the efforts to get materials and supplies into the area.

“With no power, that is going to prove to be a challenge,” resident Janet Mitchell said.

Kivalina city and village officials did not respond to calls Tuesday afternoon. Kivalina mayor Austin Swan said on Facebook that the city will declare a disaster.

Koenig added: “It’s all hands on deck.”

Editor’s note: This story has been updated to reflect that according to troopers, the fire was reported around 12:50 p.m. Tuesday, and that borough Director of Public Safety Chris Hatch said around 2:30 p.m. firefighters had responded to the blaze. It wasn’t immediately clear when the response started.