8/23/19 Scooper Planes Drop Water on the Swan Lake Fire on Friday

The Sterling Highway has seen a lot of activity today as portions of the Swan Lake Fire flared up.

CL-215 Scooper plane

The two fingers south of the Highway, one along the western edge and one that crosses over Jim's Landing put up sizeable plumes. 

The highway was open and closed much of the day but opened again at 5:55 pm and remains open now. The flareups were dealt with by CL-215's, water scooping aircraft, filling out of Skilak Lake.

Below is a video of  CL-215's dropping water on the Swan Lake Fire today.  The first plane that drops nothing is the lead plane that guides the CL-215's into the right pathway over the fire.  The lead plane is followed by  four scooper planes dropping water.  Thank you to Jay Walter in a Alaska Division of Forestry air attack aircraft, for shooting the video. Air attack can be fixed wing or helicopter, but is  "eyes in the sky" like air traffic control when a fire has many airplanes flying.