A wildfire that ignited as a result of an escaped dump fire near the village of Pilot Point on the Alaska Peninsula is now estimated to be at least 500 acres but all immediate threats to the village have been mediated.
Pilot Point is a small, remote village of approximately 65 residents located on the Aleutian Chain, about 370 miles southwest of Anchorage.
Twelve smokejumpers who were flown in to initial attack the fire on Thursday completed a burn operation along a road leading from the village to the dump to keep the fire north of the village and to protect the village airstrip and wooden power poles threatened by the fire. The fire is about 2 miles north of the village.
Air travel is getting off the ground again.
A year of coronavirus pandemic restrictions and precautions made airports into ghost towns. The 777.9 million people annually who had been taking off their shoes and separating their laptops from their carry-ons at Transportation Security Administration checkpoints slowed to a trickle.
On April 2, 2020, 130,000 were putting their seats and tray tables in the upright position nationwide just 5.6% of the 2.4 million that had been flying the same day in 2019.
Protecting the airline industry was a big part of the federal CARES Act passed in March 2020 as airports became parking lots for most passenger jets. It was easy to wonder if people would ever get back to complaining about lost luggage and tight leg space.