On the afternoon of Monday, June 15, 2015, Division of Forestry and other emergency personnel responded to a grass fire at 1:38 pm near Mile 77 of the Sterling Highway. Although the Card Street Fire only burned 8,876 acres total this summer, it threatened more local residences and disrupted more lives than the Funny River Fire.
Just two hours later on that first Monday afternoon, that fire had reached 75 acres, and was now threatening neighborhoods in the Feuding Lane Area. KSRM’s Derrick Arlyn was nearby, watching as the fire quickly spread in roughly the same area that the Funny River Fire had threatened the year before.
Arlyn: “Everybody is trying to keep their emotions in check but you can see it in their face that people are very worried about this one and very worried about their homes. Because it’s in a very populated area, it’s moving quick and everybody that’s been by, they don’t even have time to talk, they just want to drop their stuff off and go get their next load of everything from home.”
Although the Kenai Peninsula Borough had not yet issued an evacuation notice, Central Emergency Services was assisting the Division of Forestry in helping residents leave If they wanted to do so.
The first evacuation notice via reverse 911 calls from the Borough’s Office of Emergency Management came in by 5:00 pm.
By 5:30 that day, the fire had grown to 150 acres and was deemed the Card Street Fire.
Division of Forestry spokesman Andy Alexandrou…
Alexandrou: “This fire has crossed the Kenai Keys Road and that’s what is precipitating the need for south of the river evacuations and of course north of the river evacuations. We have confirmation that we’ve lost six structures.”
Photo courtesy of David Buerkel
By noon Tuesday, the Card Street Fire was estimated at about 1,500 acres burned and the borough was reminding residents that evacuations were still in effect.
Brenda Ahlberg: “Kenai Keys Road runs parallel or adjacent to the Kenai River and there’s subdivisions along that area, folks I think are going back in thinking they can check on things and that’s not at all advisable. People need to stay out of that area and need to evacuate so that fire crews can get in there and effectively suppress fire.”
The fire continued growing but suddenly the Kenai Peninsula situation was not just being increased with gusty winds and hot, dry weather. Sam Albanese with the National Weather Service detailed the discouraging weather forecast that would include dry thunder storms.
Albanese: “The thing with these types of thunderstorms is we’re not expecting much if any precipitation to make it to the surface. With that said, we’re not expecting that until after 6 pm but there are two things to be concerned about with this type of event. One: the lightning, the thunder storms that they are originating out aren’t putting down any substantial moister, so they could spark new fire starts. And two: with thunder storms you typically have very erratic and gusty winds with them.”
Firefighting resources began spreading thin as over 100 dry lightning strikes in the Cooper Landing area Tuesday started two more wildfires near each other, and the highway.
Terry Anderson with the Division of Forestry said those fires were very hard to get to because of the mountainous terrain.
Anderson: “It’s just impossible, I mean it’s a very steep sloped mountain, forested. So I imagine it is burning quite actively up into the tundra.”
The Card Street Fire continued growing and threatening neighborhoods, with evacuations in effect fully through Thursday of that week.
As if 2014’s Funny River Fire had prepared the community for the 2015 Card Street Fire, groups and neighbors rallied together to assist those pushed out by the flames as well as raise their spirits.
Although Derick and Drucilla Williams had to evacuate and were still worried about the fire circling back toward their home, but the couple worked to cheer up a neighbor who was also sheltered at Hooligan’s Lodge.
Drucilla Williams: “We were talking to a lady last night who lives down Zenith and she was just in tears because they wouldn’t tell her if her house was still there, she’s just evacuated not knowing if it hit her house or not. She’s a three time cancer survivor and she said she’s just been building her house little by little and she couldn’t afford insurance because of how little she makes every month. So if she loses everything she has no way to start over. I was trying to make her laugh so when she said she had a hill behind her house that she needed to clear, I said well you know, if your house makes it and that hill went on fire, because she said she did see the fire on her hill, then maybe that’ll clean that up for you. Ya know, if your house is still standing that’s one less thing you have to do, maybe it’ll just clear your lot for you.’ And that made her laugh a little.”
The Sterling Community Center had been transformed into an emergency shelter providing meals and showers and it was nearly overwhelmed by community donations.
Four days into the fire, KSRM’s Ashley Smith met Tom Sindorf and Brandon Armbrust at the center just after they had eaten breakfast.
Sindorf: “It’s just crazy, the area was evacuated but we took a pump, one of our neighbors, Fred Launer had a hose and a pump, and we stayed and fought the fire down at his house and then took the pump up to Dock’s Landing.”
Armbrust: “We saved probably eight houses down at the end of Feuding Lane with the pump pulling water out of the Kenai, a two inch water pump.”
Sindorf: “Yeah, we had a couple hours of advance knowing it was coming that way so we stayed and wet the whole thing down.”
Although the borough and firefighting agencies recommended that all residents leave, Launer said he was not just going to leave the home he’d built.
Launer: “I could egress from my boat on the river as a last ditch effort, so I was going to stay here until I saw my house burning and then I was going to leave. Fortunately, between two of my good neighbors, brothers, and then three others of the brotherhood, came down and all pitched in and with their help and a little luck from above, we saved it all. It’s a good thing.”
The Launers’ home was located below a steep hill on the banks of the Kenai River and he recounted some intense moments.
Launer: “During fighting this thing and watching it coming down the hill, it was probably one of the most intense things that I’ve ever experienced. Because between the smoke and the heat of the fire, it felt like it was pushing you backwards from it, you just couldn’t get close to it. It was just a real experience, that I don’t want to go through again.”
By Friday of that week the fire had reached 7,578 acres, Borough Mayor Mike Navarre had declared it an emergency and later that afternoon Governor Bill Walker declared a state emergency in response to the three fires on the Kenai Peninsula.
Gov. Walker: “Came down and met with Mayor Porter and Mayor Navarre and then flew over the fire and I guess what was surprising to me was how close into a subdivision it was. It was very, very close to houses.
Within two weeks, the Division of Forestry labeled the Card Street Fire as 40% contained and the firefighting resources were dispatched from the Kenai Peninsula fires to the other 318 blazes around Alaska.
A disaster assistance center was set up in sterling by Alaska’s Division of Homeland Security.
Spokesman Jeremy Zidek says in the month that disaster assistance applications were available, ten applications were received for the Individual Family Grant, six were denied and a total of $38,180.79 has been paid out to the other four to date.
The division received three applications for Temporary Housing, paying out $25,344 to two of the applicants to date.
Zidek says that other than the applicants, few others had significant damages from the Card Street Fire but those that did were aware of the disaster assistance centers and chose not to apply.
By July 10, less than a month since the fire began, Card Street was listed as 95% contained. The Division of Forestry reported the last five percent would not be contained since it was burning in wetlands.
The final tally of the Card Street Fire from the Division of Forestry was 8,876 acres with a total of 11 structures lost, some primary residences.
