Evacuation lifted for Funny River Road Tuesday

The evacuation of Funny River Road has been lifted as of 9 a.m. Tuesday.

The evacuation advisory for residents on Kenai Keys Road and Feuding Lane has also been lifted Tuesday morning, said Brenda Ahlberg with the Kenai Peninsula Borough.

The Red Cross shelters set up at Redoubt Elementary School and Sterling Elementary School will close today.

Sue Thornton, Red Cross shelter manager at Redoubt Elementary said nine people stayed at the shelter overnight.

Community meetings are scheduled Tuesday for residents to learn more about current fire suppression activities. Meetings will be at Tustumena School in Kasilof at 6 p.m. and at Soldotna High School at 8 p.m.

Rob Allen, incident commander with the Alaska Interagency Incident Management Team, said today’s rain has helped firefighters, but crews need three days of steady precipitation for it to have a major impact on the Funny River Road wildfire.

Michelle Weston, public information officer with the Alaska IMT, said five structures have been lost to the fire. One was a private cabin and one was a Department of Natural Resources cabin — Wally’s Cabin. Two were believed to be cabins on Nature Conservancy land and one was an outbuilding. The outbuilding was on the same property as a Kenai Keys area home. The home was saved.

Most recent mapping shows the fire at 182,209 acres or about 285 square miles. About 690 personnel are assigned to the blaze.

May 25 was the biggest day for the fire, with an acreage increase of 32,400.

Allen said the wildfire is currently the No. 1 priority fire in the nation.

 

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