Tok evacuation order still stands after phone alert expired Tuesday

The order telling parts of Tok to leave is still in force. The phone alert that carried it is not.

The wireless Evacuation Immediate message sent at 1:16 pm Monday carried a 24-hour life and expired at 1:16 pm Tuesday. It has not been reissued, and as of Wednesday morning no alert of any kind was active anywhere in Alaska. Nothing in the records reviewed says whether such an alert is meant to be reissued during a multi-day evacuation, or how residents are expected to learn of a change now.

The Alaska Division of Forestry and Fire Protection has kept using other channels. More than 100 people attended a community meeting in Tok on Tuesday evening, and a recording went up on the division's Facebook page and YouTube channel.

The evacuation has not been lifted. Level 3 GO orders remain north of the Alaska Highway from Mackenzie Trail to East 5th Street, including Red Fox Drive.

The fire has since moved through one of those streets. "The fire has crossed Red Fox Drive and continued northeast toward the Tanana River," the division said in a Tuesday night update. Embers are starting spot fires up to half a mile ahead of the main fire, and crews are checking whether it has reached or crossed the river.

The division gave its first containment figure, 16 percent, with the secured portion inside the community of Tok. Satellite mapping put the fire at 5,077 acres, down from 5,533 Tuesday afternoon — a mapping correction rather than a shrinking fire. Heavy smoke and clouds are obscuring the north and northeastern edge, so that number will keep moving.

Nearly 200 firefighters are assigned. The southeast edge is most active, and crews are cutting line through thick spruce on the western and northeastern sides to keep the fire from turning back toward more homes. No additional houses were reported lost Tuesday, against the roughly 20 already damaged.

People have been going back into the evacuation zone. The division said returning residents are putting themselves at risk, blocking access and delaying firefighters.

Wednesday is a third straight day of near-critical fire weather, with high pressure building into the Eastern Interior and humidity dropping toward 25 percent if Tok reaches the mid-70s. The chance of wetting rain is near zero Wednesday and Thursday. The next possibility is Saturday, with very low confidence.