Gilles Creek Fire (AK)

Fire season is underway in various parts of the U.S. and Canada. I am always interested in noting the role of air tankers in wildland firefighting in support of the crews on the ground working to contain and then control the fire. It is my intention to report on individual fires from time to time where aerial operations are working hand in hand with ground crews.

The Gilles Creek Fire In Alaska, started by lightening on May 26 has burned about 16,400 acres as of May 31. I noted when I was reading this thread from the wildland fire hotlist forums (for Alaska), that two CL-215 scoopers had been deployed to this fire. See, for example, these photos from the inciweb photo page for this incident.

The Alaska report from the BLM for Monday May 31 reported on the role of the CL-215's: "the CL-215's worked with dozers and other equipment to reestablish containment lines."

The current Alaska report may be found here. You will see a long list of fires in the Alaska report. The Gilles Creek fire (AK-DA- Gilles Creek #219). I found the entry for the Gilles Creek fire by searching the pdf document for "Gilles Creek".

The Gilles Creek Fire is only one of several fires burning in Alaska. For more information on wildland fires in Alaska you may want to check out Alaska Wildland Fire information from the Alaska Dept. of Natural Resources, Division of Forestry, or the Alaska Interagency Coordination Center, both sites have links to the report that I linked to in the preceding paragraph.

The Fairbanks Daily News Miner reports on how firefighting agencies in Alaska are mustering resources to fight wildfires in Alaska here.

Finally, you may find information on wildfires in Alaska on the Alaska IA hotlist forum from wildland fire.