Denali National Park was closed Sunday afternoon and bus service into the park was suspended as a wildfire raged across the Nenana River from the McKinley Chalet Resort, a mile from the park entrance. The fire spread to 350 acres in a matter of hours.

According to the park, westbound tour and transit bus service has been suspended. Public facilities and trails in the front country have also been closed, including the Denali Visitor Center. Day visitors currently west of the park entrance area have been transported east.

At around 5:30 p.m., the park began evacuating partner employees who lived in residential areas near the park entrance.

“Visitors staying at Riley Creek Campground, as well as residents living further west in the park, are urged to stand by and be ready to evacuate if necessary,” the park said.

Meanwhile, an army of volunteers from Morning Star Baptist Church in Healy began making sandwiches and assembling food packages for the evacuees, who will likely head to Tri-Valley School in Healy. Denali County Mayor Chris Noel said the county is expecting 150 to 200 evacuees. An hour later, at least 200 people were at the school, according to County Clerk Amber Renshaw.

The Golden Valley Electric Association reported that 128 members in the canyon area were without power as of about 2:50 p.m. The GVEA believes the recent wildfire, now called the Riley Fire (#318), is the cause of the outage. The GVEA will investigate whether electrical equipment was damaged or whether protection failures due to temperatures from the nearby fires caused the outage. GVEA line crews were out checking power line equipment early in the afternoon. The GVEA said members without power should expect extended delays if equipment was damaged, especially while the fire continues to spread in the area.

The wildfire broke out Sunday afternoon. Flames and billowing clouds of thick smoke were clearly visible from mile 239 of the Parks Highway, and it wasn't long before the plume of smoke could be seen for miles.

The fire continued to spread rapidly Sunday afternoon, moving northwest. Water bailouts, a firefighting aircraft and helicopters worked to keep the fire west of the railroad and away from populated areas. The Tanana Fire Department arrived shortly after 4 p.m. with 10 more parachutists. They drove down the Parks Highway to join the firefighting effort.

The fire is burning in black spruce trees on steep terrain near the Alaska Railroad tracks. No structures are currently in danger, but firefighters responded immediately because the fire is so close to a populated area.

According to the Alaska Fire Service, BLM Alaska Fire Service paratroopers “assessed” the fire by flying over it at about 1:15 p.m. and were then dispatched to the scene. Both large and small fire engines and a firefighting aircraft were also deployed, the fire department said, “to quickly extinguish this wildfire near a populated area.”

At 2 p.m., 12 smokejumpers were sent to the fire by plane and another 10 smokejumpers are on their way to the fire site by ground transport. Four fire bosses, i.e. firefighting planes, are on site and two firefighting planes and an extinguishing agent tanker are on the way.

Also responding were Denali National Park and Conservation Area, Tri-Valley Volunteer Fire Department, McKinley Village Volunteer Fire Department and the Fairbanks Region Forestry and Fire Protection Agency.

This story will be updated.