A resident of Shageluk reported a house fire to Alaska State Troopers at 3:57 am on Saturday morning.

The Shageluk caller related to troopers that when they arrived at the scene of the fire in the village at 3:15 am, they found that the fire had already fully engulfed the structure and that the fire had already caused the roof of the house to fall in on itself.

Troopers responded to the community from Aniak, and arrived at the scene of the now smoldering fire at 12:30 pm later that day. Troopers reported that the fire was still creating a lot of smoke and the area was still to hot to enter. At approximately 12:40 pm, a body was located in the fire wreckage but authorities were unable to remove the remains because of the conditions.

On Sunday, at about 1:25 pm, troopers were finally able to extract the remains of the deceased from the wreckage, and those remains were transported to Aniak. The remains will be transported to the State Medical Examiner’s office in Anchorage for positive identification and autopsy.

Weather permitting, the State Deputy Fire Marshal will attempt to fly to Shageluk to investigate the fire today.