HOOPER BAY, AK (August 4, 2006) – Hooper Bay Covenant Church has escaped damage from a sweeping fire that has devastated this small remote Alaskan village, destroying the elementary and high schools, one of the village’s two businesses, and more than a dozen homes, Covenant News Service has learned.
No injuries have been reported among the population of some 1,100, according to news reports from the region. The accompanying photo of the fire is courtesy of Hooper Bay Police Chief James Hoelscher.
No injuries have been reported among the population of some 1,100, according to news reports from the region. The accompanying photo of the fire is courtesy of Hooper Bay Police Chief James Hoelscher.The village store destroyed by the blaze was operated by a member of the Hooper Bay church, according to Rodney Sawyer, field director for the Evangelical Covenant Church of Alaska (ECCAK). Hooper Bay Pastor Grant Funk and his family are reported to be safe, but could not be immediately reached for comment.
Jon Cardwell, pastor of the Scammon Bay Covenant Church, said as many as 250 people were evacuated. Scammon Bay is located approximately 45 minutes north of Hooper Bay, which is some 500 miles east of Anchorage and not accessible by road.
The fire, which is believed to have started in the elementary school around 6 a.m., came within 300 feet of an adjacent bulk fuel tank farm that serves the school, according to a report in the Anchorage Daily News. Firefighters from Hooper Bay and the neighboring villages of Chevak and Scammon Bay battled the blaze with hoses and pumps set up in ponds and the help of firefighting equipment, flown in from other parts of the state.Relief efforts have been started to help the displaced. “Our village and surrounding villages are collecting food and clothing for those affected by this tragedy,” says Cardwell. The Red Cross also was planning to send assistance. Hugh Forbes, chair of the ECCAK General Council and operations manager of Unicom in Bethel, Alaska, took two generators to Hooper yesterday in case they lost power.
Covenant World Relief (CWR) is accepting donations to help rebuild the village, says Jim Sundholm, CWR director. Checks, made payable to Covenant World Relief and designated for Alaskan relief, should be mailed to Covenant World Relief, 5101 N. Francisco, Chicago, IL, 60625.
Covenant News Service will update information on the fire as it becomes available.
Copyright © 2011 The Evangelical Covenant Church.
Wow, what a remote place in Alaska; I would love to live here. Looks absolutely stunning, compared to where I live here in London, UK
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02.27.12 at 3:21 pm