Funny River Fire

An abandoned camp fire turned into this:

The smoke cloud as seen from the north side of Kenai.

The fire started on Monday, Tuesday morning (when this photo was taken) the fire had grown to 2,500 acres. By Tuesday afternoon the fire was estimated at between 6,000 and 7,000 acres.

Taken near Soldotna, Tuesday afternoon.

By Tuesday night the fire had grown to 20,000 acres. It reached Tustemena Lake yesterday and started burning around the lake moving more westerly then east.

We really need some rain. Today the wind direction changed and blew that huge ash cloud over the top of Soldotna clear up to Anchorage even. We worked outside in a eerie overcast and ash fall.

This fire is near Soldotna but burning south and so far hasn’t been a threat to structures or humans. Some folks near Kasilof are getting nervous and voluntarily evacuating. Evacuation procedures are being given to Funny River residents in the event of a change in direction of the fire but no evacuation has been ordered at this point.

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