Wildfire devastation continues in Alaska

Houston

Fire fighters are still struggling to bring under control the wildfire in Alaska that broke out last Sunday forcing hundreds of residences to evacuate.

The most recent fire erupted Monday and burned six structures and prompted hundreds of residents to flee homes on the Kenai Peninsula, roughly 150 miles south of major wildfire that started a day earlier near Willow in the heart of the state's sled-dog community.

The Willow-area blaze prompted volunteers to join in making sure that both people and their sled dogs as well as other animals were safely evacuated.

The fire is raging near a far-flung community of about 2,000 people living along a 20-mile swath along the Parks Highway, a major road connecting Anchorage and Fairbanks.

The Willow area fire started about 1 p.m. last Sunday and quickly grew to 10 square miles. Residents were under a voluntary evacuation order, and the highway was intermittently closed because of the heavy smoke that enveloped the area.

Alaska's Department of Natural Resources said in a news release that the "explosive wildland fire on the Kenai Peninsula forced the evacuation of hundreds of homes," but did not provide a more precise figure.