Northern Alaska's staffed wildfires wind down, but crews brace for more

Rain across northern Alaska has knocked down the last of the wildfires the U.S. Wildland Fire Service has crews assigned to. When the final firefighters walk out near Kaltag on Wednesday, the federal agency — which protects some 191.5 million acres across northern Alaska, a stretch larger than Texas — expects to have no staffed fires left in it.

That isn't a season ending. Fire managers point to red flag warnings, warm and dry weather, and several days this month with more than 2,000 lightning strikes north of the Yukon River. Crews are repositioning for the next start rather than heading home for the year, and holdover fires — lightning strikes that smolder for days before surfacing — remain a worry. Fire potential statewide is forecast to stay normal through October.

The last of the fires mattered most to Kaltag. The Notakok Fire began with a July 6 lightning strike and burned about a mile from the Koyukon Athabascan village on the Yukon River, a community that depends on the surrounding land and has few ways out if a fire runs. A crew will sweep the ground once more for hidden heat before leaving.

The other two are down to smoke and embers: the Nutmeg Fire near Wiseman, reduced to isolated smoldering, and the Konedsin Minnkohwin Fire in the Kanuti National Wildlife Refuge east of Allakaket, where crews contended with an added Alaska hazard — bears wandering into the fire camp.