Fire Island (Anchorage, Alaska)

Island in Anchorage, Alaska, USA

Fire Island (Dena'ina: Nutuł'iy) is a 5.5 mile (9 km) long island in the U. S. state of Alaska, located near the head of Cook Inlet at It is the only island in the Municipality of Anchorage, sitting three miles (5 km) off the city's Point Campbell, and nine miles (14.5 km) from downtown. Its land area is 17.467 km2 (6.7439 sq mi, or 4,316.1 acres), and there was no permanent resident population at the 2000 census.

Fire Island is underlain by sedimentary rocks, atop which lie deep sand and gravel deposits from the surrounding tidal estuary. The island is ringed by steep bluffs that average about high, and the land elevation ranges from 25–90 above sea level. The island is dominated by forests similar to those found in the Alaskan interior, and bogs are found in poorly drained low lying areas. Small areas of tidal marshes and salt grasses exist in the west and northeast. There is little fresh water on Fire Island, since there are only a few small lakes and the water table is prone to salt water intrusion. From 1909 to 1955, the island was designated as a breeding ground for Alaska moose. During World War II, the U. S. Army used it as an observation point to guard against Japanese submarines.

In September 1951, the U. S. Air Force 626th Airborne Control and Warning Squadron was established on the island at a base on its southern end called Fire Island Air Force Station. Staffed by about 200 personnel, the base was an air defense radar center and Nike surface to air missile site for NORAD, doubling as a Federal Aviation Administration air traffic control radar and communications site. Since the island is not connected to the mainland, all supplies came by helicopter from Elmendorf Air Force Base and, during summer, by barge from Anchorage. A runway was built during the first years of the base's existence; however, during the 1964 Alaska earthquake – one of the largest in recorded history – the airfield subsided into the ocean, leaving helicopter as the only way of reaching the island by air. In 1982, the site of the old air station was turned over to the native corporation Cook Inlet Region, Inc. (CIRI) as federal surplus property. Currently, CIRI owns 90% of Fire Island's 4,000 acres, the rest belonging to the FAA and the US Coast Guard. The FAA maintains a private general aviation airfield on the east corner of the island, which has one runway. Data from 1976 showed the airfield hosted, on average, 25 landings and takeoffs each month. Access to the island is by permission only. In 2000, Chugach Electric approached CIRI, the owners of Fire Island, with a proposal that CIRI build a wind farm there and sell the electricity to the Anchorage power grid. Measurements taken over the next several years reconfirmed the site's viability for producing commercial wind power. The FAA, operators of nearby Anchorage International Airport, cautiously approved the project in 2008 after deciding that the wind turbines would not interfere with their radar equipment.