10:30pm Update
Brad Nelson with CES said no new numbers for the Funny River fire acreage as there have been problems with mapping. However he did say operations have said they made good progress on both fronts keeping it away from the population. No evacuations are anticipated for immediate future.
9:00pm Update
As of the last update, the Funny River fire is still at over 67,000 acres and nearly 15% contained.
The Division of Forestry said a Type 2 Incident Management Team from Washington state will be taking over the Funny River fire area Saturday, May 24.
374 personnel are on the ground assigned to fight the fire, with an expected increase to more than 500 personnel over the weekend.
Celeste Prescott with the Alaska Interagency Incident Management Team said there has been no update to acreage of the fire as all crews are busy on the ground but there has been a little growth.
Prescott: “I know that there has been some growth to the East and a little on the Northeast. There is of course been some down there by the Pollard Subdivision and it’s really just erratic winds there kind of moving around on us. But , we’ve got the Ducks working, got our helicopters working, we’ve got a type one hot shot crew that have hiked into the closet buildings that are near the Pollard subdivision, or near where the fire is is approaching on the Pollard Subdivision and working on structure protection.”
Tyonek Fire Update
As Friday evening, at around 5pm, Alaska Division of Forestry spokesperson Sarah Saarloos, indicated that the fire had grown to over 2,000 acres, but fire fighting and emergency personnel were confident the firebreaks would hold into the evening hours.
As of the last update, the fire was over 67,000 acres and nearly 15% contained.
We recently spoke with Brad Nelson of Borough Emergency Management Services.
Nelson: “No updates, they’ve got the planes back up and running, they’ve got a bunch of crews out there on Pollard to setup structure protection and everything should it get this far. But, they have crews out there working the line, and like I said it’s all preparation right now.”
Officials stated that this afternoon may present heightened fire activity which the public might be able to see.
Michelle Weston with the Interagency Incident Management wanted to remind people to find safe places to view the fire.
Weston: “Yeah, and another thing, were just asking people to stay off the road. Like visitor traffic to stay off the road, and clear the roads to make sure that in other words if you are going to pull off and look at the fire that there is room to look at the, that you are still off the highway.”
The Alaska departments of Health and Social Services as well as Enviromental Conservation have issued a warning about health issues due to the wildfire smoke from the Funny River and Tyonek fires.
Environmental Public Health Program Manager Ali Hamade detailed the release.
Hamade: “Basically the recommendation are to the public in general, because, air pollution’s can be bad for everyone. Specifically those who can be more susceptible to the bad health effects of air pollution. And those include children, the elderly and those with heart and lung disease, like asthma, COPD, or any other cardiovascular disease. Those can be as higher risk and for those people specifically the advice is to limit to exertion, to limit heavy exercise, particularly outdoors cause that could effect their health in an adverse manner.”
5:00pm
Derek Leichliter was on the shores of the Bear Creek subdivision with a level two firefighter crew from Oregon sit and wait for gear as helicopters are bringing it in .
According to Leichliter Currently the fire is .7 miles away supplies sit on the beach ready for use and while he was there the wind shifted North.