Firefighters working to contain the Moose Creek wildfire near Sutton are dealing with diminished winds after three days in which gusts, at times, reached 60 mph.
Fire information officer Sara Saarloos said strong winds this morning have died down.
“We’re able to take advantage of the decreasing winds to be able to start building those control lines around the fire. We don’t have any active fire on any of the edge right now, so that is giving us the opportunity to get in there, built containment and then start the process of mop up into the interior of the fire.”
The unusual late-season fire started Saturday and covers about 328 acres. Saarloos says there has been no growth since Monday morning, when a portion of the fire reached the Glenn Highway.
She says the fire is less than half contained.
“Right now we have it at about 20 – 25%. Right now they are out doing some mapping, and once the mapping comes back, we are looking to see that containment percentage go up. ”
About 90 people are working on the fire.
APTI Reporter-Producer Ellen Lockyer started her radio career in the late 1980s, after a stint at bush Alaska weekly newspapers, the Copper Valley Views and the Cordova Times. When the Exxon Valdez ran aground in Prince William Sound, Valdez Public Radio station KCHU needed a reporter, and Ellen picked up the microphone.
Since then, she has literally traveled the length of the state, from Attu to Eagle and from Barrow to Juneau, covering Alaska stories on the ground for the AK show, Alaska News Nightly, the Alaska Morning News and for Anchorage public radio station, KSKA
elockyer (at) alaskapublic (dot) org | 907.550.8446 | About Ellen
