Fire crews are battling two serious wildfires in Alaska that are threatening hundreds of residences and have forced numerous evacuations.
The most recent fire erupted Monday and burned six structures and prompted hundreds of residents to flee homes on the Kenai Peninsula, roughly 150 miles south of major wildfire that started a day earlier near Willow in the heart of the state's sled-dog community.
The Willow-area blaze prompted volunteers to join in making sure that both people and their sled dogs as well as other animals were safely evacuated.
The fire is raging near a far-flung community of about 2,000 people living along a 20-mile swath along the Parks Highway, a major road connecting Anchorage and Fairbanks.
The most current reports I've seen say that this fire has already burned up 8,500 acres, and when I walked out of my back door this morning I could smell it in the air. Quite strong actually.
Which is not surprising since the fire is only around 70 miles away from Anchorage. (But less than 30 from Wasilla.)
We get these fires almost every year up here, but usually they are not so close to people's homes.
This one is a particularly bad one however.
