Late-Season Fires Flare Up In Drought-Stricken Parts Of Alaska

Late-season wildfires during one of the driest summers on record in Anchorage have destroyed homes, forced evacuations, closed roads and schools and poured sometimes-dangerous levels of smoke into the state’s most populous region.

About 80 miles north of Anchorage, the 3,000-acre McKinley Fire was burning on both sides of the Parks Highway.

That blaze had destroyed more than 50 structures as of Sunday night and residents of the area, which lies between Wasilla and Talkeetna, were under evacuation orders, fire officials said.

Some schools in the fire area were closed, local officials said, and thousands of other residents were facing possible evacuation orders.