The Card Street Fire has laid down over the last few days but the public might notice some new smoke columns over the next week or so.
That doesn’t mean the fire is spreading again said Andy Alexandrou with the Division of Forestry.
There are a couple reasons new smoke may be present, the first of which is…
Alexandrou: “The fire team plans to burn approximately 2,000 acres of unburned spruce fuel along the southeast perimeter of the fire. That’s from the present fire line down to basically the edge of Skilak Lake on the southeast side of the fire. Folks need to be aware of that, that’s firefighters fighting fire with fire.”
The second reason there could be new smoke columns is because the Card Street Fire burned in a mosaic pattern, according to Alexandrou, which means…
Alexandrou: “So there’s stringers of unburned fuel on the inside of that fire, in the interior of it. As it warms up or the wind comes up there these stringers smoke up and start to burn and it will put some more smoke columns in the air. It could very well be well inside the perimeter of the fire but people will see that smoke coming up and it will cause interest and concern.”
The Card Street Fire is still currently at 25% containment but will reach 100% containment before crews are dismissed.