Alaska fire evacuees go home

FOX, Alaska – Cool, humid weather Sunday helped slow the advance of a wildfire that caused the evacuation of hundreds of homes and businesses in Alaska’s Interior, and forecasters predicted wetter weather would soon follow.

An evacuation order remained in effect Sunday for 277 homes and businesses still threatened by the blaze. The fire has spread over 306,000 acres, up from 280,000 the day before.

Susan Woods was among the few evacuees allowed to return home as much of the heavy smoke blanketing the region about 30 miles north of Fairbanks dissipated.

“To get in my own bed seems more appealing than celebrating the Fourth of July,” she said before leaving the truck-stop lot that had been her temporary home for five days.

Many residents camped out at the truck stop with their pets. Others took their animals — including horses, llamas, reindeer and goats — to the fairgrounds in Fairbanks.

Most displaced by the fire were urged to stay away Sunday, though state troopers let some homeowners return to retrieve possessions or check on property, fire officials said.

Firefighters planned to bulldoze and burn out a fire line between evacuated areas and the southwestern edge of the fire, which has damaged at least one home, fire information officer C.J. Norvell said.

The fire, started June 13 by lightning, is considered 15 percent contained, fire officials said. It was the largest of 62 fires active in the state on Sunday, and it is the only one with an evacuation order in effect. So far this year, more than 1.8 million acres in Alaska have burned.

Elsewhere, a wildfire about 110 miles northeast of Tucson, Ariz., threatened the observatory that is home to the $120 million Large Binocular Telescope, one of the world’s most powerful optical instruments.