A shop fire that destroyed David and Linda Keirstad’s home at 8.5 Mile Haines Highway and spread up the mountain Monday evening continues to burn at press time on Wednesday. South winds fanned the flames that are feeding on about four-acres of a forest that has received little rainfall this month.

Around 25 Haines Volunteer Fire Department and EMS volunteers responded to the fire that began around 6:30 p.m. Monday. The home rekindled early Wednesday morning and local crews again responded

Keirstad, who was helping to mow his neighbor Margaret Piggot’s grass, was changing a belt on his lawn mower Monday evening when the blaze erupted. “I heard banging,” Piggott told the CVN on Tuesday. “The flames were tree-top height and larger.”

Piggott, 87, whose woodshed is within 30 yards of the shop, called the fire department and then attempted to fight flames approaching her property with her garden hose.

“It’s amazing how fast it spread,” HVFD chief Al Giddings said of the fire that moved from the shop to Keirstad’s newly built home, to the mountainside above.

“We got up as far as we could and we only have 200 feet of line or so,” firefighter Chuck Mitman said Monday evening. “It had already shot way up there. There’s a lot of fuel because there’s some beetle kill strip. Once it got that, it went up there. Then there’s a pocket of downed stuff so it got into there.”

The HVFD focused on the structure fires, where propane and fuel tanks were located. Volunteer crews from the Klehini Volunteer Fire Department assisted Haines crews. Responders had to be continually cycled out after using two air tanks each. EMS volunteer CJ Jones monitored vital signs and waited for them to return to normal before volunteers were allowed to again work on the site. Firefighters worked into the early hours Tuesday morning attempting to subdue the flames. Giddings held fire watch through the night.

While cooler nighttime temperatures and increased humidity subdued the flames Monday night, a south wind blew early next morning. “It flared up,” Giddings said on Tuesday afternoon. “I sat at the house until morning and you could see it flare up right on the ridgeline.”

State forester Greg Palmieri climbed the mountainside to observe the fire in an effort to provide the U.S. Forest Service, the agency responsible for fighting the forest fire, with details.

Palmieri said fires are burning on a 70-degree slope. Flames reached a 50-foot cliff, above Keirstad and Piggott’s property, and climbed above the cliffs to spread at the ridgeline where it continues to burn. “It’s technically not contained,” Palmieri told the CVN Wednesday morning. “We’ve prevented any further spread. We suppressed the head of the fire yesterday, above the cliff.”

The U.S. Forest Service contracted a helicopter to fight the flames from the air. The helicopter filled a 100-gallon bucket with water from the Chilkat River to dump on the flames and made about 20 passes, Palmieri said.

The Forest Service sent eight firefighters Tuesday afternoon and 12 more arrived Wednesday, said Tongass National Forest public affairs officer Paul Robbins. The ground crews are blocked by steep slopes, Robbins said, but they are cutting, digging and removing debris that could cause the fire to spread. The firefighters are using hoses and porta-tanks, installed by HVFD volunteers, to extinguish flames.

As of Wednesday morning, Robbins said the fire was 10 percent contained, but is no longer spreading.

Early Wednesday morning, a portion of the Keirstead house that remained standing rekindled, threatening the mountainside forest above, Giddings said. HVFD volunteers received the report of flames at 5 a.m. from a neighbor who heard explosions from the property.

“By the time we got out here the unburned portion of the house was fully involved,” Giddings said. “Three diesel tanks had fully ignited. The fire was starting to crawl back up the hill. Several trees were starting to burn from the radiant heat.”

Piggott, who suffers from a stroke and walks with a cane, again used her garden hose to protect her woodshed. “It was burning really close to the shed,” Piggott said. “I don’t know why because the wind was going south east. It was a back burn. The hose was handy.”

Giddings said they extinguished the flames in about 15 minutes. Crews are dismantling what’s left of the debris in an attempt to remove any additional heat sources.

Giddings warned of an active fire season as dry conditions continue. “(Conditions) are pretty dry right now, but it can get drier,” Giddings said. “We’re keeping a vigilant eye this summer, expecting a very active fire season.”

The fire’s cause is still unknown, officials said.