Medfra Fire survives Alaska winter, burns thousands of acres

Above: The Medfra Fire near the North Fork Kuskokwin River, northeast of McGrath, Alaska. Alaska Division of Forestry photo by Jason Jordet, May 29, 2016.

Most wildfires, if they are not completely extinguished in the summer or fall, do not continue burning over the winter and flare up again the following spring or summer. The Alaska Division of Forestry (ADF) says this appears to have happened on the 16,500-acre Soda Creek Fire 43 miles northeast of McGrath, Alaska. The fire survived the Alaska winter and continues to burn.

The ADF says as of May 30, what is now known as the Medfra Fire, had blackened an additional 2,000 acres, but more recent satellite data leads us to believe it is at least twice that size on Tuesday morning. It is likely, the ADF said, that it will merge with the Berry Creek Fire, another fire that likely survived the winter, three to four miles to the north.

Or the two fires may have already merged by today.

From the ADF, May 30, 2016:

…The Alaska Division of Forestry is formulating a plan of attack to protect any structures and Native allottments that may be threatened and utilizing natural barriers to check the fire spread toward the small settlement of Medfra about 20 miles to the southwest. North winds Sunday night kept the fire burning through the night and winds were expected to continue today.

The fire is burning along the north bank of the North Fork Kuskokwim River. One Native allotment and one cabin are threatened by the fire and State Forestry is developing a site protection plan to protect any values at risk.

The Medfra Fire was called in as a smoke report at 10:25 a.m. Sunday. It is suspected to be a holdover fire from last summer’s 16,500-acre Soda Creek Fire, as it originated in the Soda Creek Fire burn scar and spread into an unburned area with fresh fuel. Fueled by gusty north winds, the fire grew rapidly despite water drops from a helicopter and retardant drops from air tankers. By 2 p.m., the fire was estimated at 50 to 100 acres and by 6 p.m. it was estimated at 500 acres. The last estimated at 9 p.m. was 1,650 acres and growing.

Air retardant tankers dropped several loads of retardant on the fire Sunday to keep it north of the river and thus far the fire is burning parallel to the river on the north side. Twelve personnel are working on the fire on the ground, including eight smokejumpers from the BLM Alaska Fire Service. Several crews from Southwest Alaska villages are staged in McGrath and are ready to join the suppression effort when a plan is formulated.

The Berry Creek Fire burning 3-4 miles north of the Medfra Fire is expected to merge with the fire today. The Berry Creek Fire was reported at approximately 8:40 p.m. Sunday by an air retardant tanker working on the Medfra Fire. It too could be a holdover fire as it originated in an old burn scar. It was initially estimated at 5 acres burning in mostly black spruce but it grew to approximately 50 acres within an hour and was estimated at at least 320 acres as of 10 p.m. Tankers dropped two loads of retardant on the fire Sunday night but the intensity of the fire was such that the retardant did not have much of an effect.