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New Central Peninsula fire draws crew from Swan Lake blaze

Alaska Interagency Coordination Center

         Firefighters and helicopters are aggressively working on new a fire on the Kenai Peninsula. The Killey Fire southwest of the confluence of Killey and Kenai rivers is burning in a full protection area east of Brown's Lake and to the west of the Killey River near Sterling.

 It was reported at 3:20 Sunday afternoon by firefighters aboard an aircraft guiding water-scooping airplanes flying between Skilak Lake and the Swan Lake Fire.

A Division of Forestry helicopter attack crew with four firefighters responded and three other firefighters traveled by four wheelers to reach the fire.

 They are busy cutting in a saw line around the fire that is burning in heavy dead and downed trees from the 2014 Funny River Fire.

Two helicopters dropped large buckets of water on the fire, including one that was pulled from the nearby Swan Lake Fire before it was diverted back when winds kicked up activity on the Swan Lake Fire burning in the Kenai National Wildlife Refuge.

Firefighters reported the Killey Fire is burning in deep under-surface layers and was proving to be resistant to suppression.

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