Two people were severely burned in a fire in Bethel on June 6. The Bethel Fire Department responded to the fire at 3:36 a.m. at 236 East Avenue, across the street from Corina’s Case Lot Groceries, near the Brown's Slough mouth.
When the firefighters arrived, two homes and a vehicle were burning. In total, 16 firefighters and six police officers responded to the scene, according to a statement from the Bethel Fire Department. Five city water trucks delivered water to the area to contain the flames. Two of the people living in the home were severely burned, and officials transported them to the emergency department at the Yukon-Kuskokwim Health Corporation hospital. The fire department has not released the names and ages of the victims of the East Avenue fire.
Fire fighters brought it under control around 6:30 a.m., three hours after arriving at the scene. The fire department determined that the fire started unintentionally from “discarded smoking material in dry grass.”
The Alaska Division of Forestry warns that much of Alaska is at risk of fire due to dry conditions.
