Photo courtesy of Andy Hedden.
The U.S. Forest Service and some Haines volunteer firefighters are still working to contain the 8.5 mile fire.
The state of Alaska and the Forest Service have a cooperative agreement that says any wildfires burning more than 300 feet from the road fall under federal jurisdiction. So eight U.S. Forest Service firefighters arrived in Haines around midday on Tuesday to help the Haines Borough and Klehini Valley Volunteer fire departments fight the 8.5 mile fire. Twelve more forest service firefighters fly into Haines Wednesday and another fire engine will arrive by ferry.
Paul Robbins from USFS says four local volunteer firefighters are still helping battle the blaze.
“They’re cutting hand lines and using hose lays to fight the fire right now,” he said.
“And those hose lays are supported by the Haines volunteer fire department water tankers.”
He says the fire is ten percent contained and not spreading. It is a four acre fire; USFS revised its previous estimate of five acres once they got on the ground in Haines.
Vertical and near vertical terrain make some parts of the fire inaccessible to the ground crew. Helicopter support is dropping buckets of water on this area. The fire crew is hoping that a rain forecast will drop some water on the fire as well.
“Tomorrow there’s gonna be milder burning conditions with lower temps so the incident commander was happy to see that. Hopefully, it will help the efforts,” said Robbins.
There are no reported injuries, road closures, or evacuations at this time.
