Cabin fire spreads into wildlands at Mile 46.5 of Chatanika River

A cabin fire near Mile 46.5 of the Chatanika River spread into surrounding wildlands Sunday evening, growing into a quarter-acre wildfire north of Fairbanks.

Callers reported the fire at about 6 p.m., the Alaska Division of Forestry & Fire Protection said. Two smokejumpers were on scene to contain it, then monitor it through the night. Additional resources were en route.

The Shovel Fire, incident No. 451, is burning in an area surrounded by hardwoods.

The Chatanika is a 128-mile tributary of the Tolovana River. Its corridor holds private cabins and residential subdivisions that have been subject to wildfire evacuation alerts in past years, including during the 2019 Shovel Creek Fire near Murphy Dome.

Small fires like this one are tracked through the same interagency coordination structures and public information channels that Alaska fire managers use during larger incidents, including akfireinfo.com.

The division did not say whether other structures were threatened Sunday. It issued no further updates that night.