KETCHIKAN — No one was injured in a Monday night blaze that destroyed an abandoned waterfront cabin in Knudson Cove.
“We don’t believe there was anybody in the building,” said Jerry Kiffer, chief of the North Tongass Volunteer Fire Department. “There had been reports that there may have been someone around the building earlier on this morning.”
The cause of the fire was not immediately clear, Kiffer said, but the building is a total loss and had not been occupied for two years. Fire had spread to the trees surrounding the cabin, but firefighters had doused the exterior flames before 11 p.m. Monday.
Witnesses captured video from Knudson Cove Marina of flames reaching into the treetops as the fire hit its peak.
The cabin sits in the rear of the south end of Knudson Cove and isn’t connected to a road. It’s accessed by a trail, according to Kiffer, but firefighters were using Christopher Road to access the beach to reach the structure.
Access to the cabin made tough work for firefighters, who had to carry hoses, breathing apparatuses and other equipment down hundreds of feet of rocky shoreline with the tide coming in to begin fighting the fire.
“It’s really going to be slow trying to get all of our gear down there,” Kiffer said, noting he expected the response to last until after midnight.
The initial alarm went out close to 9:15 p.m. Monday, but the exact time was not available by deadline.
North Tongass called for mutual aid from the Ketchikan and South Tongass fire departments, and 26 firefighters were on the scene late on Monday.
North Tongass requested the assistance of the Ketchikan Fire Department’s firefighting vessel, the Harry Newell, but the vessel was called off before it reached the cove.
