Juneau, Alaska (KINY) – Update 02/02/2024: Capital City Fire/Rescue Chief Rich Etheridge gave an update on the fire department’s response Thursday night to the North Douglas fire that was shortly followed by a Switzer Creek fire. No injuries were reported at either incident.
“We met as many of the resources we have available, just to get ahead of those types of things. Juneau’s isolated, we don’t have other departments that we can rely on. So if we can hit it really hard in the beginning, it really shortens the amount of time that we have to be on scene, putting the fires out. But being an all-metal building on the exterior access was difficult,” he said. “The crews ended up using saws to cut holes in the big roll-up doors to have safe access to make sure that they didn’t have doors come down on them or that they couldn’t get back out of them. But fire crews reported that there was some structural compromise inside the building. At the end, they started working from the outside trying to put out just kind of a little spot fires here and there.”
Shortly after the North Douglas fire, CCFR had to respond to Switzer Creek for smoke showing underneath a trailer.
“It was reported that dark smoke was coming out from underneath of the trailer. The crew spent probably five hours working on that fire because the fire was under the trailer and there was large amounts of snow around the whole residence. And so gaining access from the exterior took lots of time,” Etheridge said. “They also went inside and cut holes in the floor to get underneath it. But those types of fires typically come back to things like heat tape, but we have not been able to gain access underneath the trailer for any investigation to take a look at it yet.”
The Fire Marshal is still investigating both fires. There was significant damage reported to Mike Hatch Sales & Service on North Douglas. The business is closed until further notice according to its Facebook page.
Fire Chief Etheridge added that it’s important for people to check the condition of heat tape in a residence periodically.
Update 02/01/2024 7:30 p.m.: The fire is knocked down and crews are searching for any smoldering fire before they can move apparatus. CCFR continues its response. One lane of traffic is now open.
Original 02/01/2024 6:00 p.m.: Capital City Fire/Rescue is on the scene at North Douglas for a structure fire as of about 5:30 p.m. Thursday. The road is completely blocked. CCFR asks the public to avoid the area.
More information will be provided once it becomes available.
