The fire started in the elementary school, which was destroyed. People could do nothing but watch the flames spread because they didn’t have equipment to fight the fire, Funk says. Pumps brought in from other area villages were used to hose down fuel storage tanks which were scorched. To read an earlier account of the fire, please see Hooper Bay Fire.
“It’s an absolute miracle that those fuel tanks weren’t destroyed,” says John Wenrich, the Evangelical Covenant Church’s director of church revitalization. He had been vacationing and working on projects at Alaska Christian College, but traveled to Hooper Bay when he heard of the fire.
Wenrich rode on one of two airplanes provided by Mission Aviation and Repair Center that brought in 9,000 pounds of water that was needed until local officials can determine whether the fire contaminated the lakes that provide the village with water.
The village has no water, and although there is a well, most of the villagers draw water by cutting ice from the local ponds and lakes, Funk says. A sanitary sewer system also is not available, forcing people to use five-gallon buckets as toilets.
Living conditions have further hardened because the village already suffers a housing shortage. The fire displaced between 60 and 80 people who have been forced to live with others in the village.
Funk hopes new homes can be built by the end of October, before the weather becomes almost unbearable. The organization Samaritan’s Purse already has said it will fund construction of five homes.
Logistics will make reconstruction difficult, Funk says. “Getting materials in will be expensive.” He also will need 10 carpenters who are willing to live in primitive conditions. “We’re not the Hilton here,” he adds.
Funk says meetings over the next few days will help clarify how villagers will address the future, including providing education for the children. Despite the loss of property and food supplies, residents are upbeat.
“No one was injured or killed,” he explains.
If carpenters are interested in helping, Funk says they should mail a resume to him at Box 237, Hooper Bay, AK, 99604.
