6:00pm Update
The Division of Forestry reports their earlier aerial assessment of 15-18 acres for the Sandra Fire near Homer was inaccurate and after walking the fires perimeter with a GPS have determined it to be 8.3 acres.
Andy Alexandrou with the Division of Forestry said they are pretty confident they have a handle on the fire.
5:00pm Update
The fire on East End Road has grown to around 15-18 acres.
Andy Alexandrou with the Division of Forestry said crews are making good progress.
Alexandrou: “Two retardant aircraft dropped their retardant on that and that’s 2,000 gallons each, they feel as though they’ve caught the fire, I’m talking to a local person that lives at Mile 10, this fire is at Mile 12, it’s called the Sandra Fire.”
There are 11 forestry personel working on it and possibly some volunteer firefighters.
The fire threatened two structures and two KBay fire engines that responded were working on structure protection. It is unclear if the structures threatened are residential, recreational, or commercial.
4:00pm Original Report
Eleven Division of Forestry staff, three engines and two helicopters are responding to a fire reported on 5 Mile of East End Road in Homer.
The Alaska Interagency Incident Management Team reported the fire was originally reported at about a half acre around 4pm. The Division of Forestry just reported the fire has now grown to three acres.
Andy Alexandrou with forestry said the fire is near some power lines and two fire retardent tankers along with a lead plane have been ordered out of Palmer.
This is a developing story, please check back for more information.
