Fire consumes sheds, chicken coop in Kenai

Published 4:52 am Friday, April 22, 2016

A structure fire drew responses from five agencies in Kenai on Thursday afternoon, but harmed no one.

The Kenai Fire Department, Central Emergency Services, Kenai Police, the Alaska Division of Forestry and Enstar Natural Gas Co. responded to a fire on North Dogwood Road in Kenai around 1:30 p.m. Thursday, said Kenai Fire Chief Jeff Tucker.

The flames consumed two storage sheds and a chicken coop at the back of the property, and burnt the outside of Dwayne Thompson’s home. Thompson was not home when the fire started, and his daughter, Rebecca Hunter who lives next door, called both him and 911.

“I noticed the smoke,” Hunter said, adding that she had her dad on the line on her cellphone while talking to 911 on her land line in the other hand.

The Kenai Fire Department extinguished the blaze within roughly 30 minutes, Tucker said. There was a dog in one of the sheds and one that hid under the house, but none were harmed, he said.

The Division of Forestry responds to fires when there is a chance they could spread to wild land, Tucker said. He explained that though the fire was put out quickly, it did spread across the yard through dry grass.

“Luckily Forestry there responded very quickly with us,” Tucker said. “This could very easily have gotten out into wild land and gotten to be a bigger fire, so it’s real important, you know, to watch fire conditions with this dry grass … It was moving pretty quick, luckily they were very close.”

The cause of the fire will not be known until Kenai Fire Marshal Tommy Carver can complete an investigation, Tucker said.

Reach Megan Pacer at megan.pacer@cmg-northwest2.go-vip.net/peninsulaclarion.