Truck fire closes highway, gets international support | KHNS Radio

A vehicle fire on the Klondike Highway has halted traffic in both directions. Canadian firefighters crossed the border to help.

On May 24, a vehicle fire at Mile 14 of the Klondike Highway closed the two-lane highway and sparked an international response. When Skagway Fire Chief Emily Rauscher was informed that a truck towing an RV was engulfed in flames, she quickly called Canada for backup.

“So it’s complicated up there because of the radio communications,” says Rauscher. “It’s complicated up there because there is no water point. It's complicated because it's outside the city.

The area where the fire occurred, called The Summit, does not have cell phone service. It sits 2,000 feet above sea level and is a long, slow ride for tenders carrying water.

The Skagway Fire Department has a certified tender capable of carrying 3,000 gallons. His fire truck can carry 1,000 gallons. When firefighters arrived on scene, the engineer dammed a small puddle with a tarp and directed it toward the fire truck to avoid running out of water.

Three platforms responded from Canada, one offer from Carcross and two offers from Mount Lorne. The fire was brought under control within an hour and traffic was allowed, ensuring tourists arrived in time for the departure of the national ferry and cruise ships.

No one was injured and Rauscher says there was a lot of water.

Once the fire was under control, a medical call from Skagway proper required two paramedics to be sent back to town. When firefighters returned to Skagway and began cleaning their equipment, two more medical requests came in, along with another fire call. Rauscher says the trend of overlapping calls is becoming more common and concerning.

“It’s something we’ve never really seen before,” she said. “Two people per team is not enough to handle these overlapping calls. We must therefore get ahead. »

According to Rauschers, solutions must be found to meet the growing demand.

“Our resources are definitely stretched,” she said. “And I think, and I'm preparing, that this summer could be the summer where we just don't have the infrastructure at the fire department to handle all the requests. And it's not a question of whether it should happen. It's, it's happening, and it's the objective data that shows that there is this demand.

A contract intensive care paramedic will soon join the firefighters. The position falls within the department's current budget.