Dozens of firefighters are battling a wildfire northeast of McGrath that has grown rapidly over the past few days.
Tim Mowry is a public information officer for the Division of Forestry.
“There’s three fires actually,” Mowry said. “There’s two fires that are substantial and then there was another hot spot that was picked up and those have all merged into one fire now: The Medfra fire, which we’re estimating currently approximately 8,130 acres. So it’s grown considerably as a result of those fires merging together.”
Mowry said the Division of Forestry has four crews on the 8,000-acre fire, including smokejumpers and nearly 80 personnel.
The Medfra fire was first reported Sunday morning.
Fire managers said the wind shifted Tuesday, turning the spread of the blaze back toward McGrath. Mowry said the crews are primarily trying to protect Native allotments, including a cabin, just south of the fire.
