Beluga

Anchorage Police Department sees spike in stolen cars

By Zacharia Hughes, APRN – Anchorage

Seventeen cars were stolen in a single 24-hour period in Anchorage, starting Monday and running through Tuesday morning.

Jennifer Castro, a spokesperson for the Anchorage Police Department said, “Majority of them were cases or scenarios where the motorist had left their key in the ignition running so that it could warm up."

It's less smoky than yesterday but smoke from two Southcentral Alaska wildfires is expected to return when the wind shifts over the weekend.  Water-scooping aircraft is being deployed today to protect Kasilof from the Funny River fire on the Kenai Peninsula, which has grown to 63,000 acres, and is 3.5 miles from a Kasilof subdivision. On the west side of Cook Inlet, the Tyonek fire has grown to 1,800 acres. Firefighters have completed dozer lines removing potential fuel sources around the Beluga power plant, which supplies electricity to half of Anchorage.

A health advisory is in effect for areas from Soldotna to Anchorage and the Matanuska-Susitna valley as some 200 firefighters work to contain a wildfire near Soldotna. Another 90 firefighters are working to contain the Tyonek wildfire that is headed toward Beluga, the site of the Chugach Electric powerplant at Beluga that supplies electricity to half of Anchorage.

Congressman Don Young, Alaska Republican, has proposed a measure that would set aside federal land in Northwest Alaska for an Arctic deep water port.