It took walking the fire to begin to understand how fast, far and fickle the fire spread. North of Eastland Canyon, the fire not only jumped East End Road -- it had roared almost a mile on the other side.

Map provided A map of the Mile 17 East End Road fire as of Saturday morning, May 16. The areas in red are the uncontrolled fire edge. By evening fire crew had firmed up most of the red lines at the southwest and northeast corners. Enlarge photo

In places, the landscape looked like a nuclear holocaust, acre after acre of black, scorched earth, with cragged stumps and trees sticking out of gray ash. Patches of green or brown grass spotted other areas next to black ground. Water-saturated alders and willows had been barely touched next to burned spruce trees. Where the fire crossed the road, the ditches might still be burned, but either side was charred yards off the road.

Officials lifted an evacuation order on Saturday. East End Road remains closed to everybody but residents from Mile 17 east. Alaska State Troopers are staffing a road block there. Fire engines and crews remain on the road or nearby, and residents are urged to be extremely cautious on the narrow, winding road.

A federal disaster has been declared, but that only means that Federal Management Assistant grant money will be paid to support state and local governments. No FEMA loans will be made to private citizens.

Out of about 150 homes, seven structures were believed to have been destroyed, including two primary residences. That a handful of homes burned spoke to luck, skill or the hard work of firefighters who raced to stop the fire at its worst on Wednesday.

"There are 150 houses not burned. Consider that a miracle," said Lynn Wilcock, incident commander for the fire.

The luck of his neighbors was small comfort to John Coile, who lost his cabin south of East End Road near Basargin Road. His face drawn and weary, Coile stood at a turnout on Saturday afternoon, his Jeep still packed with what he could save.

"They saved a lot of homes. It's too bad they couldn't save mine," Coile said. "I'd like to say thank you to all those that did come out and fight this fight."

A cabin belonging to Susan Connor on Mountain View Circle Road also was lost. All that remained of her home was crumpled metal roofing, a stove and scorched lumber.

Wildland firefighters should have the fire 100 percent contained by late Sunday, Rob Allen, operations section manager, Alaska Fire Service, said at a community meeting at Homer High School on Saturday. Two lines at the bottom of Lusky Road and between Patsy's Road and Falls Creek Road remained to be filled. East End Road and other streets contain part of the fire perimeter, with bulldozer lines containing the rest.

The fire is not yet controlled, and probably won't be until Wednesday or Thursday of this week, Allen said. Still, at the community meeting on Saturday, Allen seemed positive.

"Things are looking really good today," he said. "The weather helped us out a lot."

An Anchorage Fire Department engine strike team left Saturday morning, but engines from the Matanuska-Susitna Borough are still on scene. On Saturday, 246 firefighters and other staff worked the fire.

Throughout the fire area, crews walked the burned ground, searching for hot spots. Wisps of smoke rose up from piles of old logging slash, stumps or downed trees. Firefighters cut up logs to check for burning, and dug into the ground with Pulaski axes looking for hot embers. Stretching hoses from fire engines, the crews wet down areas of white ash.

Photo by Michael Armstrong Anchor Point Volunteer Fire department firefighter Nathaniel Brown works on a hot spot in the Mountain Circle Road area.

"The heavy things that have heat in them will come back to haunt us," said Pete Bruist, an Alaska Division of Forestry fire information officer leading a media tour of the area on Saturday.

Although Saturday's rain kept the fire danger low, officials worried that several days of warm and sunny weather could dry out the fire area. Firefighters focused on the remaining smoldering spots -- thousands of them, Buist said -- to keep embers from flaring up on a dry, windy day.

"There's still heat out there," Allen said. "If we get a couple days of sun, a couple days of wind, it could flare back up."

"Nobody's in imminent danger, except those houses still surrounded by hot spots," Bruist said. "It's not exciting any more. Is it still a danger? Yes," he added.

That was part of this weekend's job: finding those hot spots and firming up bulldozer lines around homes. Most of the "slops," as firefighters call them, were in the area north of East End Road.

"We're now going from stump hole to stump hole and getting those trees on the ground," Allen said.

One home that survived was Aron Peterson's house at the ed of Mountain View Circle. The fire roared up Falls Creek Valley to the southwest of his home, Peterson said, scorching his deck but damaging nothing else. Grass had burned on either side of a gravel path and up to his driveway, and the fire stopped dead there. Wide lawns and cleared space surrounded his house. Peterson had a Firewise expert visit his home last year, and he took her advice.

"It was Firewise that saved my house," he said.

Terry Jones credited the firefighters.

"You kicked the fire off my house. I am eternally grateful for every one of you, and I think you did an awesome job," she said.

Jones lives off Rantone Road, near where the fire started. Her husband, Randall Jones, made the first 911 call on Tuesday. He had seen the fire start about 600 yards off the road and called it in on a radio. Cell phone coverage east of McNeil Canyon is spotty or nonexistent. Jones said he saw a downed powerline near where the fire started, but he didn't know what knocked the line down.

State Forestry fire investigators are looking into the cause of the fire, but have not made any conclusions, Bruist said. HEA also is investigating the cause.

Coile was bitter about the suspected cause of the fire.

"I was hopeful that the people I feel responsible for originating the fire are going to step up," Coile said, referring to Homer Electric Association. "You've got to cover people's losses and make them whole again."

An open burning suspension has been lifted for north of the Anchor River drainage, but remains in effect for the lower Kenai Peninsula.

For more information, call State Forestry's fire information line at 235-2851.

Michael Armstrong can be reached at michael.armstrong@homernews.com.