Firefighters battle Montana Creek Fire on Independence Day

After an unexpected shift this afternoon, firefighters are once again making progress fighting the Montana Creek Fire near Talkeetna.

This morning, the Alaska Division of Forestry and Mat-Su Borough held a joint press conference at the Upper Susitna Senior and Community Center to provide updates on the 250-acre fire.

Division of Forestry Public Information Officer Stephanie Bishop said at the press conference that aircraft had surrounded about ninety-percent of the fire with retardant, but that Montana Creek was zero-percent contained.

“That helps knock it down so that we can get our foot crews in to get closer to see what we’re actually dealing with.  When we say ‘zero-percent containment,’ we can’t confirm containment until we have a perimeter set that has a hose line to it, and we’re confident that hose line is going to hold that perimeter.”

Incident Commander and acting Mat-Su Director of Emergency Services Ken Barkley expressed optimism.

“Right now, we feel pretty confident we have a handle on it.  Again, with these dry conditions, anything can happen. We have some top-notch crews on the fire from Forestry, and I feel very confident that they can handle it.”

This afternoon, something did happen.  The fire unexpectedly shifted and grew.  Firefighters were able to maintain the east and west flanks of the fire, but it began expanding south. That prompted the borough to raise its evacuation alert level, advising residents to be able to leave their homes within minutes if necessary. Blackhawk helicopters from the Alaska Air National Guard were dispatched to prevent the fire’s spread.  By shortly before 4:00 pm, Barkley said the situation had become safer, and the evacuation level was lowered again.

At every opportunity, officials have warned of the dry, hot conditions that are forecasted to continue in the Susitna Valley through the weekend.  Barkley says the amount of assets that could be committed to the fire early on made a big difference, but that there aren’t more resources to go around.

“Our main concern right now is if we have another fire.  Again, resources throughout the state are at its max right now.”

Out-of state firefighters are already deployed to fires across Alaska, including the Baker River Hotshots in Montana Creek.  That hotshot crew also fought two small fires in the Montana Creek area during the Sockeye Fire of 2015.

As of late Thursday afternoon, the Montana Creek Fire remains at zero-percent containment.