A river dropped just in time to save the cabins near Chicken

For a week, the Polly Fire smoldered in the backcountry near Chicken while the one thing standing between the crews and the cabins it threatened wasn't the flames — it was the river. This week, the Fortymile finally dropped enough to let firefighters through.

When the water came down Tuesday, a crew from Denali National Park scouted the cabins and mining camps scattered along the river northwest of the fire and got to work wrapping structures in sprinklers — finishing protection at one site and, with more gear flown in overnight, moving on to others. The fire sits in tight company: one cabin within a mile, and more cabins and gold-mining camps within three, in a stretch of the Taylor Highway corridor where recreational miners, RV campers, and guided-tour operators all have something to lose when fire creeps toward the drainages.

The good news is the fire hasn't done much creeping. The 120-acre Polly Fire, sparked by a June 20 lightning storm, hasn't grown since June 26 — held in check by a run of light rain and cool weather that kept it quiet for a fourth straight day, with no smoke even visible Tuesday. Crews got their window at exactly the right time.

The catch is that the season isn't done handing out surprises. Fire managers warned that as the Interior dries out and warms back up, holdover fires — blazes quietly smoldering since the last lightning storms — may flare into view in the days ahead. For now, though, the Polly Fire is calm enough that this is likely the last update on it, the cabins along the Fortymile wrapped and waiting out a fire that, for the moment, has decided to behave.