Fire Breaks Out Between Council and White Mountain Thursday

A blaze caused by a campfire broke out between Council and White Mountain on Thursday. Image-Google Maps
A blaze caused by a campfire broke out between Council and White Mountain on Thursday. Image-Google Maps

A fire caused by a campfire was reported near White Mountain in northwestern Alaska on Thursday evening, the fire consumed a cabin and about 15 acres of the surrounding area were burned before the blaze could be brought under control.

Troopers received a report of the fire, eight miles upriver from White Mountain  at 8:30 pm on Thursday. The White Mountain VPSO responded to the scene via boat to find “that a cabin owned by a White Mountain resident was completely consumed by fire and the surrounding trees and tundra were burning.”

Twenty members of the White Mountain Volunteer Fire Department also responded to the scene with shovels and portable pumps and were able to bring the blaze under control, until the flames jumped a quarter of a mile to where the pumps could not reach.

A bucket brigade was formed and the fire was once again brought under control and extinguished, preventing the spread of the fire to the nearby community of Council.

The investigation at the scene determined that the fire took off after a family member at the scene left the fire without completely extinguishing it.

No injuries were reported in the incident.[xyz-ihs snippet=”Adsense-responsive”]