Fires Follow Fairbanks

Fires are a simply a part of Alaskan summers. You don't hear about it in the lower 48 because there's so much land up here that no one flinches if 100,000's of acres burn. That is, until it gets close to a community. On my way to Fairbanks after officially ending my roadtrip in Seward, I encountered a fire just after Denali NP and 50 miles from Fairbanks. I had heard of it word of mouth and there was some concern as to whether I would be able to get to Fairbanks in time because the fire had jumped the road at numerous locations and at times the smoke cut the visibility down to nil. What follows are glimpses of my first close-up encounter with an active forest fire, how the sky went from bright blue with scattered clouds to a dense, surrounding canopy of smoke and how the landscape was newly scarred. It was 45,000 acres at the time. I was on my way to meet my new friend, Dave, of LDP a year's prior to my year, who happens to live in Nenana. His living quarters were threatened and his boss lost his home.

So it depends on how the wind blows how smoky Fairbanks is, but the sun has had a hard time getting through because of clouds and smoke. Fairbanksans just have to deal with it. I can't say they've gotten use to it, but they cope. http://www.cnn.com/2006/US/06/09/alaska.wildfire.ap/index.html

That's what the fire looked like June 11th. One week and one week later on my way back from two days in Denali NP. The fire had moved, but was still raging here's what it looked like then. Again it was all blue skies until...(and no, those are not storm clouds...it's smoke!)

The Parks Highway fire is now at "115,500 acres at 60 percent contained.This fire is one mile southeast of Nenana in black spruce, tundra and grass. Numerous residences, native allotments, recreational cabins, commercial property and utility infrastructure remain threatened. Fire activity was minimized due to favorable weather conditions." (http://www.nifc.gov/fireinfo/nfn.html)

It's too bad this fire began because someone dumped out there fire barrel before it was cool.

Two years ago there was a huge fire just Northeast of the city in the Chena Hotsprings area (home to the hotsprings and the ice hotel...yes, you can live in a room entirely made of ice, using a caribou hides to separate you from the bed of ice...interested? well you better have a credit card ready and be patient because there's a long waiting list and the price hurts).