Twin Creeks Fire at 50 Percent Containment

Kayla Desroches/KMXT

The Twin Creeks fire crews are making steady progress on containment. On Monday, firefighters had reached 10 percent containment, on Tuesday 20 percent, and on Wednesday 30 percent. Today, the fire is at 50 percent containment.

State Division of Forestry information officer, Jim Schwarber, says a containment line is a section of the fire boundary that the fire managers are confident is secure and that the fire will not escape. He says right now they’re “mopping up” behind the residences in Chiniak.  

“Where the edge of the fire stopped burning, the crews will walk in anywhere from 5 to 10 feet apart in a line and walk back and forth 300 feet deep into the fire burned area and feel actually with the back of their bare hands above the ground to sense any remaining heat from the fire.”

He says they’re making sure the remaining fuels don’t have a chance to reignite due to leftovers from that fire. He says they have three type II crews that are working towards each other to complete the containment.

“They were assigned different portions of the fire to continue extending the fire line that’s been constructed so far in regards to mopping up and securing the fire perimeter. The Yukon crew will be transported and will be driving actually through the fire on the road system to the far south side of the fire and start working that edge back towards the other two crews.”

Schwarber says they have about 93 firefighters not including additional assistance, but they did have one less crewmember starting Tuesday.

“There was a non-emergency transport of a firefighter who badly sprained his knee while on the fire line and was in pain, so we made arrangements to get him medical help and transported him to Kodiak for that. It was a minor injury, though it’s possible that he may not be returning to the fire line. It was a fairly severe sprain.”

Schwarber says it’s unclear how the firefighter hurt himself.

“The country out here is pretty rugged and footing is always important. That was our safety message for the morning brief was, be very careful out there, especially if it starts raining today. With fiber soles on firefighting boots, those do not give good traction on wet logs. So, we were encouraged ‘no walking on the top of logs, step over things.’”

Schwarber asks that people remain cautious of hazard trees in the Chiniak area. Fire can weaken roots and cause trees to fall over.