10:00pm Update
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8:30pm Update
Fire Update: 176,069 acres with 30% containment, 670 personnel assigned, 0 injuries.
8pm Update
Kris Eriksen with the Division Of Forestry, spoke with a large group of residents from the Funny River area this evening at Redoubt Elementary. She told the group the No homes have been lost, the Kenai Keys area is quote “Fine”.
Crews predicted they would have the entire western line contained today. The dozer line has been connected from the northern edge of the fire down to Star Lake, passing through several swamps (which do not need to be dozed, because the moisture contains the blaze).
Heading into tonight’s meeting the team has a contingency plan in case the fire heads in different directions, but their focus now is on the homes closest to the fire.
Eriksenwent on to say that protection is in place around the Bear Creek cabins.
She said the team is Alaskan, and is very familiar with black spruce and feel very good about how things are going on the front lines. First priority is protecting life and property, then attacking that active edge on the northeast side of the fire.
Latest containment was 30% with 165, 722 acres effected, but they haven’t got an updated figure. There has been no power loss. A power line was DE energized, the other day, but it was a supplemental feed to Anchorage to prevent loss of power.
At last report, the fire is not right at the River, but it looks that way because of the smoke. This is likely the last evacuee meeting, unless the fire changes direction or has any dramatic changes overnight.
Decision on Funny River residents returning home will be published tomorrow morning at 9am via robocall and KSRM. If you don’t get the call by 10:30am, contact the Borough.
The Alaska IMT would like to update the community on the progress of the fire on Tuesday, May 27, 2014.
Tustumena School 6pm.
Soldotna High School 8pm.
These meetings will be broadcast on KSRM.
6:30 pm Update
Andy Alexandrou told us about the forecast for this week.
Alexandrou: “We’re expecting a break in the weather come tomorrow, rain. They’re saying a hundred percent chance of rain tomorrow, with rain into Friday.”
Brad Nelson with CES explained how that might change the fires habits.
Nelson: “That’s the big thing is if we just have one of our typical little sprinkles that’s not going to do anything at all, we need some good long sustained rain, and what happens with that is not only is it putting water on the fire but its putting water ahead of the fire, its putting moisture in the ground, humidity in the air, humidity in the ground, its changing the whole face of this fire.”
5:00pm Update
Borough Public Information Officer Brenda Ahlberg said there will be a community meeting at 8pm this evening in Redoubt Elementary.
The Alaska Incident Management Team and the Office of Emergency Management will provide Funny River Road updates and answer questions.
4:00pm Update
From Brad Nelson; CES:
Nelson: “The smoke being seen in Sterling and Soldotna is from activity in refuge, not anything in funny river road area. The plume that is causing this main haze is out in the middle of the refuge in an area which is free burning and not threatening anything. It has gotten into the atmosphere and the winds and atmosphere is just right, its hitting that level and traveling right along. Plumes from the Funny River area are not causing the increased smoke and haze. This is the same directional wind as Sunday afternoon pushing the fire to the Northeast corner.”
3:30pm Update
The evacuation order for Funny River Road is still in place. Please remain out of the area until the evacuation has been lifted.
Central Emergency Services has temporarily restricted Funny River Road to move fire vehicles and crews working in the area. They need to have unrestricted access to effectively respond. Troopers and other law enforcement agencies continue patrols throughout the area. CERT members will be assisting with patrol.
Until incident command lifts the evacuation order, folks are urged to stay out of the area. Persons with critical needs may have an escort arranged through Alaska State Troopers for an in-and-out trip. To make this arrangement, please call the Soldotna Public Safety Communications Center at 262-4453. They will put you in direct contact with the area trooper to coordinate the request.
3:00pm Update
Michelle Weston with the Incident Management Team says the focus of today is holding the northeastern spread of the fire on the northern side of Kenai River. Crews are also working steadily to maintain the Funny River fire break.
They are also conducting structural assessments to all of the Funny River area to make sure no structures have been damages.
Crews made significant progress on the western flank of the fire near Kasilof.
Wind patterns are expected like yesterday however, Weston said that the winds continue to be irratic, Incident Commander Rob Allen described it as kind of a “whack-a-mole” fire in reference to the fact that the wind directs crews to which flanks it affects.
1:00pm Update
The Kenai Peninsula Borough has lifted the evacuation advisory for the Sterling Hwy mile 103-109 area.
11:00am Update
At 10am this morning the Alaska Incident Management Team provided this update to media at Redoubt Elementary;
The Funny River Fire crossed the Kenai River Sunday afternoon near Torpedo Lake just east of the Kenai Keys. Several spot fires within the Keys did minor damage but were quickly put out. The fire management team is working to confirm if any structures have been lost. This wind driven fire is continuing to spread northeast towards the Skilak Lake Road. The Lower Skilak Lake Campground was evacuated and is closed until further notice. The Kenai Keys area is under an evacuation advisory.
The increased fire activity along the northern edge of the fire triggered an evacuation order Sunday afternoon for residents living along Funny River Road between Mile Point 7 and the east end of the road. An orderly evacuation took place, with Alaska State Troopers and other officials going door to door to confirm residents received the reverse 911 notification and had left their homes. About 250 of the fire’s 600 firefighters are working along the northern end to further secure and extend fireline.
Firefighters made excellent progress extending containment lines on the west side of the fire in the Kasilof and Sterling Highway areas. The fire activity on the west side of the fire was minimal and the fire is now 30 percent contained.
The weather forecast is calling for rain early Tuesday. Cooler and wet weather will help slow fire activity.
Vegetation remains extremely dry on the Kenai Peninsula. Residents and visitors are urged to use extreme caution with anything that could ignite a fire. Weekend visitors to the area and residents are reminded that fire crews, air and ground equipment are working in close proximity to the Sterling Highway and Funny River Road.
Information about current smoke conditions is available from the Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation at http://dec.alaska.gov/air/am/smoke.htm
Kenai Peninsula Borough Office of Emergency Services has set up a call line to help homeowners with fire preparedness. Residents can call (907) 714-2495. Information is available at http://www.borough.kenai.ak.us/emergency-mgmt/fire
For the best and latest updates (our website has been experiencing technical issues) visit www.radiokenai.com, which will redirect you to our Facebook page, even if you don’t have a personal Facebook account.
The Sunday evening summary from the Alaska Interagency Incident Management team show an updated acreage of 156,041 with 30% contained.
Personnel: 589. Injury rate=0.
Strong winds and burning in continuous black spruce produced an active crown fire late in the burning period.
Spotting was observed a 1/2 mile ahead of the fire crossing the Kenai River. Active suppression of these spots limited establishment on the north flank of the fire. Crews continued constructing a dozer line to the southwest.
Crews are spike camped at Coal Creek Lake and they are constructing line north to tie into the dozer line.
The community of Funny River was evacuated by the Alaska State Troopers in the early afternoon as crews and air resources attempted to slow the rate of spread of the fire. This area remains closed.
The late afternoon/early evening winds pushed the fire in a northeast direction prompting the evacuation readiness alert (get ready) for Kenai Keys Subdivision and Feuding Lane. Lower Skilak Lake was evacuated in the early evening. The Kasilof community from M103 Sterling Hwy to the Kasilof River east side of the hwy, remains under evacuation readiness alert.
The water accessible Bear Creek Subdivision on Tustumena Lake was protected by a successful burnout operation and crews have begun mop up operations.
The Governor of Alaska Sean Parnell toured the incident command post and fire operations in the morning prior to the afternoon’s wind driven fire flare up.
