A Sterling fire, dubbed the Card Street Fire has grown to approximately 1,200 acres by late Monday evening.

The fire, first ignited as a grass fire was reported as a one acre fire by Alaska State Troopers at 1:52 pm on Monday afternoon. But, the blaze grew to four acres by the time firefighters could respond to the flames accessible only by air and all-terrain vehicles.

Several structures have already fallen victim to the flames and another 200 -plus homes threatened by the fire have been evacuated.

Three air retardant tankers were called in and began dumping retardant on the flames as two helicopters conducted bucket work to douse the flames.

Despite aggressive efforts on the part of firefighters, the blaze, on the south side of the Sterling Highway, continued to grow throughout the day.

Firefighters were able to conduct burn-out operations along Kenai Keyes Road to lessen the potential for the fire to grow there. 

  card street, evacuation, fire, firefighters, grass, sterling, wildland fire