Current Fire Information

On Monday, June 24th, Yukon-Charley Rivers National Preserve personnel working at Coal Creek Camp observed the Coal Creek Camp Mess Hall fully engulfed in fire.

Fire Management staff plans to burn piles of woody debris not suitable for firewood from Sunday, March 31, through Wednesday, April 3, 2024. The piles are located on NPS lands surrounding two allotments near Nation Bluff, below the confluence of the Nation and Yukon Rivers, approximately 53 miles downstream of Eagle along the Yukon River. Fire staff will ignite approximately 30 piles and monitor them over multiple days, until no heat remains. As this is a planned ignition, please do not report smoke from this prescribed burn as a wildfire.

The Biederman Fire #458, discovered July 4, has been placed in monitor status and all firefighter resources demobilized. The fire will be included on periodic reconnaissance flights performed by the Bureau of Land Management Alaska Fire Service, which is currently monitoring multiple other lightning-caused fires in the Upper Yukon Zone. The area has received several days of wetting rain and diminished fire weather conditions. Unless fire activity resumes, no further actions are anticipated.

The second fire of 2022 in Yukon-Charley Rivers National Preserve was discovered yesterday, July 4. By Tuesday morning, July 5, the lightning-caused Biederman Fire #458 had grown to 1,088 acres. Four Alaska Fire Service (AFS) smokejumpers parachuted into the nearby historic Biederman allotment Tuesday afternoon to clear brush and set up sprinkler systems around the structures.

The Big Boulder Fire (#416) was detected within the Yukon-Charley Rivers National Preserve on Thursday, August 5 via a satellite heat signature.  Alaska Fire Service air attack flew over the area later that morning and reported the fire to be 25 acres, 70% active, burning on a ridgetop in mixed spruce and hardwoods. The fire is burning approximately five miles northwest of the mouth of the Seventy Mile River, and approximately 16 miles northwest of Eagle. The fire is in a modified response area, with no values such as structures or private lands currently at risk. Alaska Fire Service will continue to monitor the fire and actions will be taken to protect the structures closest to the fire if necessary.

Firefighters are demobilizing from the Cultas Creek Fire today after finishing up work to protect historical cabins in the Yukon-Charley Rivers National Preserve about 50 miles northwest of Eagle. Fire behavior on the 38,202-acre fire continues to moderate, allowing firefighters to leave some equipment in place on historical cabins at Ben and Sam Creeks. If fire activity picks up again, firefighters can return and quickly water down the cabins and nearby area to keep the fire at bay.

Firefighters continue work to protect historical cabins from the 32,645-acre Cultas Creek Fire (#223) burning in the Yukon-Charley Rivers National Preserve. This lightning-caused fire started on June 17, and is burning on both sides of the Charley River upriver from the Yukon River. Fire behavior is predicted to be most active near the mouth of the Charley River. Recreationalists should be mindful of fire activity and smoke in the area and take steps to ensure that their activities do not start a wildfire.

Four Alaska Fire Service (AFS) smokejumpers parachuted into Yukon-Charley Rivers National Preserve to clear brush and set up sprinkler systems around Ben Creek and Sam Creek cabins and the nearby Ben Creek Remote Area Weather Station (RAWS), due to their proximity to Fire #223, the Cultas Creek Fire.

In the past two weeks, Fire #223, the Cultas Creek Fire, has grown from 10 acres to an estimated 3,000 acres. The new fire discovered on July 1st, the Crescent Creek Fire #309, is five miles upriver of the Crescent Creek confluence with the Charley River and is estimated at 10 acres.

On Thursday, June 17, while flying over Yukon-Charley Rivers National Preserve conducting fire ecology surveys, the Regional and Assistant Regional Fire Ecologists for the Alaska National Park Service discovered the first wildfire of the season in the preserve, Fire #223, the Cultas Creek Fire.