KMXT 100.1 FM Public Radio in Kodiak, Alaska
Jay Barrett/KMXT
One person is confirmed dead and three injured in an early-morning fire at a west-side Kodiak lodge today. The fire was reported around 4 a.m. at the Spirit of Alaska Wilderness Adventures lodge in Uyak Bay. It is the former Parks Cannery, which closed in 1983.
A helicopter from Air Station Kodiak responded to medevac the three injured, who had been transported to Larsen Bay, according to Coast Guard Chief Petty Officer Shawn Eggert.
“The mayor of Larsen Bay contacted the Coast Guard requesting assistance with a fire at the Parks Cannery. There were three injured people who were transported from the cannery to an airstrip there in Larsen Bay via the fishing vessel Alaskan,” Eggert said. “At this point the fire is, has been extinguished. And we do have confirmation of one fatality during the course of the fire. Alaska State Troopers are on their way to the scene to sort through things and get an investigation started.”
Trooper spokeswoman Megan Peters said in a release this afternoon that poor visibility had prevented the troopers from flying to the scene, which is about 60 air miles southwest of Kodiak City. She said they, along with a State Fire Marshall investigator, are traveling instead on the Wildlife Trooper patrol vessel Cama’i out of Kodiak.
Eggert did not know the condition of the three injured people, but reports from near the scene relayed through VHF radio indicate a man about 30 and a woman about 20 suffered various levels of burns and a woman in her 30s reportedly had another, non-burn, injury.
