Nearly 500 people are working to put out the Swan Lake Fire. Lately crews have had some help, thanks to rain giving them a break from the line so they can protect homes in the area.
"We were kind of simulating whether a fire was coming down into town on how we would engage into the community," said Ian Satterfield, the division group supervisor. "We kind of worked it through our task forces which would typically be a group of engines of five and so we put a couple little challenges out for each of the task force leaders to overcome in their groups." They pretended that the fire was between structures, that water was running out in certain areas and even a shed was lost. This gives all of the firefighters time to practice and work with a large sprinkler system.
In the Cooper Landing zone, Satterfield says they have 20 port-a-tanks and 47 sprinkler kits with more than 200 sprinklers set up.