Cooler weather should help Loon Lake firefighters

The wildland fire burning a few miles north of Sterling, near the starting point of the massive 2019 Swan Lake Fire, has torched about 102 acres so far.
    According to Torrey Short from the Division of Forestry office in Soldotna, there was no growth to the Loon Lake Fire yesterday.
    “So yesterday the crews did good solid work in there. We’ve got 30 percent containment. We’ve got 90 percent hose-line and saw-line cut in, and we anticipate getting 100 percent of saw and hose-line in today, and hope to get 50 percent containment by end of shift today,” he said. “We have cooler temperatures, which I think will help with the firefighting effort.”
    He did say there was still active fire inside the firelines, though.
    “Yesterday also there was some isolated tree torching inside the fire. We had our type-2 helicopter do some bucket work on that. Today our crews will do a lot of mop-up on the fire,” he said. “They have plenty of access to water; lakes and streams, so they’ll be using pumps to put out the fire today, tomorrow and for the foreseeable future, until we get this fire 100% contained.”
    The weather on the Kenai Peninsula will be turning rainy tonight and last through the weekend, which should help keep wildfire at a minimum.