The Rex Creek wildfire burns near Fairbanks.
Firefighters stage on top of Murphy Dome near Fairbanks on Tuesday, waiting to be deployed to fight the Hard Luck Creek fire 25 miles west of Fairbanks. The fire has destroyed one vacation home and two cabins, and threatened about 30 other structures.
Story last updated at 8/6/2009 - 11:09 am
ANCHORAGE - A wildfire 20 miles northwest of Fairbanks grew to more than 1,000 acres Wednesday and consumed three cabins built near the Chatanika River.
The Hard Luck Creek fire continued to burn in an area used by Fairbanks residents able to tolerate a bumpy ride down one of Alaska's most rugged roads.
State crews were reaching the fire by driving to the Chatanika over the rugged "Don Bennett Highway," a winding trail named for the late state Senate president who obtained money for a landing on the river, said Pete Buist, a spokesman for the state Division of Forestry.
The landing is reached by a 16 to 17 mile trail off Murphy Dome and takes an hour and a half to traverse, Buist said.
"That's how we're getting people and equipment down to the river," Buist said. From the landing, crews have been moved by river boat, he said.
The cabins were on land sold by the state in the "open to entry" program in the late 1960s or early 1970s, Buist said, when Alaskans could stake up to 5 acres.
A temperature inversion kept heavy smoke near the ground and aircraft were unable to fly. Buist said the fire likely had grown to more than the official estimate of 1,000 acres. The layer of smoke also helped lower temperatures into the 50s as solar heat was reflected back into the atmosphere.
The fire was one of at least three that sent smoke and ash into the Fairbanks North Star Borough, creating breathing irritation for the 97,000 residents.
Residents woke to a light dusting of ash as smoke continued to pour in from the Wood River 1 fire and the Railbelt Complex Fires, a series of three fires burning near Nenana.
National Weather Service forecaster Dan Hancock said winds subsided Wednesday and were expected to stay calm for the next few days, in contrast to wind that spread flames Monday night and Tuesday.
The agency also forecasts cooling temperatures with possible showers. Hancock called it a difference in degrees rather than a likely end to the fire season.
"Temperatures are going to be more like the 70s rather than the 80s," he said.
August typically brings a rainy, cooler regime to interior Alaska, often coinciding with the Tanana Valley State Fair, which begins Friday.
"Most years people don't look forward to those things, but I think most folks up here have had enough of this smoke and whatnot," Hancock said of the rain.
South of Fairbanks, the Rex Creek Fire, one of three in the Railbelt Complex, prompted fire officials to recommend evacuation of the Windy Creek Subdivision 13 miles southeast of Anderson.
Jim Schwarber, a state Division of Forestry spokesman, said fire managers feared easterly winds would spread the fire across the only road into the subdivision, cutting access to the approximately 30 structures.
A school in Anderson was designated as the evacuation center but many residents chose to stay to protect homes, Schwarber said.
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