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Fire update: 8:30 a.m. Saturday, August 31, 2019

AK Division of Forestry

The Caribou Lake Fire, 25 miles northeast of Homer, is now estimated to be 85% contained. The footprint of the fire remains at 904 acres. Alaska Division of Forestry projects that the fire will be 100% contained by September 4. 73 people are fighting the fire on the ground and in the air.

The Forestry is asking hunters in Caribou Lake to please stay away from the fire area. And to be advised that they are using the gravel lot on Basargin Road as a staging area.

A Temporary Flight Restriction is in effect for the Caribou Lake area. The TFR does include a restriction on drones.

Nearly 700 personnel are fighting the Swan Lake Fire which is burning over 160,000 acres and is now 28% contained. Cooper Landing residents remain in the Set stage of the borough’s READY SET GO evacuation plan.

There is a burn ban in effect for the Kenai Peninsula. Even when it’s raining, please observe the burn ban. Open fires are prohibited.

KBBI’s Kathleen Gustafson spoke with Chris Barth, public information officer with the Alaska Division of Forestry at 8 this morning for a fire update.

KBBI checks in with https://akfireinfo.com/and https://inciweb.nwcg.gov/ for information on fires all over the state.
 

Transcript:

KBBI:
Chris Barth, public information officer for the Alaska Division of Forestry, You have an update for the Caribou Lake Fire?

Barth:
Last night we were able to report that the Caribou Lake Fire is now 85% contained.

KBBI:
Nice job.

Barth:
Great news, really happy about that number going up. This fire is as we've said had been managed with a full suppression strategy, you know having a goal of getting 100% containment, having that fire entirely contained, with an estimated date goal of having that done by September 4.  So we're making that progress. We're getting closer to that goal certainly the moisture and the rain, the increased cloud cover all those things that have happened starting yesterday or Friday evening, have helped. Those firefighters working out there really have been doing a great job.

KBBI:
Eighty-five percent containment and still 80 firefighters?

Barth:
The number firefighters to go down just slightly. I believe today. We're at 73. There's a lot of hot spots that are inside the fire perimeter that they're chasing down to make sure that they're not going to flare up at some point later when the rain does stop or if it gets windy again, so they're really working to destroy the heat in the fire.

They're going to be having a containment line, which means that they're confident that the fire is not going to spread beyond that. They're going to have that done hopefully in the next few days, but I do want people to know because I know a lot of folks are potentially out there recreating or hunting, there will still be some smoke interior until this fire gets a lot of rain or possibly snow on it.

So I just want people to know that after it's a hundred percent contained. They might see some smoke inside the fires perimeter, but it's not going to. Get past that because it's well within the containment lines.

KBBI:
The team is Swan Lake and Caribou Lake Fires. Is there any update on Swan Lake? It's over 160,000 acres 20% contained right?
 

Barth:
You know that number with up just a bit. I believe there's about 740 personnel working on the Swan Fire currently. So, we'll go ahead and I think with increased moisture the amount of rain and the weather has tamped down some of the fire activity and fire behavior. And so that's absolutely a good sign.

KBBI:
Thank you, Chris Barth, public information officer for the Alaska division of Forestry.

Barth:
Thank you very much.

Tags
Local News Alaska Division of ForestrySwan Lake FireCaribou Lake FireChris Barth
Kathleen Gustafson came to Homer in 1999 and has been involved with KBBI since 2003.