Smokejumpers Race to Contain Three New Fires Near Allakaket Allotments

Three fires ignited overnight near Allakaket in the Interior, drawing immediate smokejumper deployments and raising protection concerns for Native allotments within five miles of the fire area, the U.S. Wildland Fire Service said Sunday.

Sixteen smokejumpers deployed to the Canoe Fire late Saturday night. The fire was burning in a mix of tundra and spruce. They completed a control line around the entire 50-acre fire before it could push into a stand of spruce. Rain moved into the area overnight. Crews remain on scene Sunday improving the line and seeking hot spots.

The Mingkoket and Chalatna fires were also detected late Saturday. The two fires sit close together, roughly 7 to 8 miles east of the Kanuti Fire and 24 miles southeast of Allakaket. Native allotments are within 5 miles of the fire area, though the agency said they are not threatened at this time. Mingkoket was estimated at 2 acres and Chalatna at 6 acres, both creeping and smoldering through tundra and spruce when smokejumpers arrived. Rain moved into that area overnight as well and continues Sunday, cooling the fires.

The cluster adds pressure to an already stretched Interior fire season. The new fires are approximately 7 to 8 miles east of the Kanuti Fire, which sits at 75 acres and 70 percent containment. A Native allotment lies approximately 1 mile east of Kanuti and is not currently threatened. Fires in that peat-heavy terrain are, as the agency noted, notoriously resistant to control.

Public safety officials are urging travelers to watch for and yield to firefighting traffic in the area, and to not stop on highways to view fire operations.

Allotment Protection

Under the Alaska Interagency Fire Management Plan, Native allotments in Limited Management Option areas carry full protection status. That means smokejumpers cut control lines and install hose lays to defend allotment lands, cabins, and fish camps even when the broader fire is allowed to play an ecological role. An earlier U.S. Wildland Fire Service update from June 19 described that approach in action near the Canyon Fire on the Yukon River, where smokejumpers and the Chena Hotshots worked to protect two allotments, a cabin, and a fish camp while the main fire burned in a Limited Management Option area.

Public Information Officer Joan Kluwe is the designated contact for further information and can be reached at [email protected] or (907) 356-5510.

Rain is moderating activity across the region today, but the Mingkoket and Chalatna fires have no stated containment figures yet, and the allotments within five miles of the fire area remain the measure crews are working against.