No injuries have been reported and no other buildings were damaged in the blaze. However, internet service has been down in portions of the village since Monday.
A fire severely damaged Manokotak’s vacant armory building on Monday. Investigation into the cause of the fire is ongoing; no injuries have been reported, and no other structures were damaged by the fire. Moses Toyukak Sr. was one of the first responders on the scene.
“In the early morning, one of the village members that was close to the armory started announcing that there was a fire at the armory building. We responded, you know, just waking up. I didn’t have coffee, just ran over,” he said.
When the volunteers arrived at the building, the water hoses were frozen, so they tried to put out the fire with snow.
“Snow and shovels didn’t work very well. It was already burnt up. And then the water boys finally got the fire hydrant going – it was frozen,” Toyukak explained.
Toyukak said that they also had to turn off the village’s power generator in order to safely disconnect the building’s power line. They turned it back on after the fire was extinguished, but the village’s internet service stayed down, and service is still out in portions of the village.
Alaska State Troopers in Dillingham received a report of the incident on Tuesday but were prevented from traveling to the site due to weather. Troopers do not yet have a cost estimate for the damage to the building, which is owned by the Department of Military and Veterans' Affairs.
Contact the author at isabelle@kdlg.org or 907-842-2200.
