Dense smoke covering an area the size of Texas kept firefighting aircraft grounded Friday as hundreds of Alaskans near Fairbanks fled with their pets and belongings.
"Smoke is heavy," said Royce Chapman, a fire information volunteer. "They can’t get aircraft to be able to spot where it is going."
The fire northeast of Fairbanks has tripled in size in recent days, growing to more than 225,000 acres as wind and hot, dry conditions made a bad situation worse.
Since Tuesday, a handful of subdivisions and scattered cabins have been evacuated and hundreds of people have sought safety in Fairbanks, which was not threatened but was overcome with dense smoke.
The National Weather Service noted that "a pall of smoke the size of Texas continues to blanket most of Alaska" because of the fire.
