United States (Alaska) - Hundreds of firefighters battled dozens of wildland blazes across Alaska on Saturday, and incident managers scheduled a meeting in Funny River tonight to answer questions and provide updates on the Shanta Creek fire east of Soldotna.

An Idaho firefighter was in intensive care at Seattle's Harborview Medical Center after he was burned while helping fight another fire in Interior Alaska on Thursday night.

Todd Warner, part of the Idaho City hotshot crew, was working on a water-pumping operation at the Logging Slash fire when gasoline vapors ignited. His burns affect about 17 percent of his body, according to a statement from the Alaska Division of Forestry.

The accident is being investigated.

The Shanta Creek fire near Soldotna is burning in mostly "dead and down" beetle-killed spruce in the Kenai National Wildlife Refuge, according to the Forestry Division. It's in a "limited" fire suppression area.

Mike Ferris, a public information officer with the refuge, said crews of firefighters and structure-protection specialists are working on the north flank of the fire, trying to figure out the best places to take a stand in case the blaze surges toward cabins, houses and outbuildings along the northern boundary of the refuge.

The Shanta Creek fire is among the fires that have made the air hazy and smoky in Anchorage and elsewhere.

After a fairly calm weekend, drier, windier weather is expected in the coming week.

Bulldozers cleared a line between the fire's perimeter and private holdings along Funny River Road, and refuge officials said residents there will see more fighters and equipment along the road for the next several days.

The good news is that the Shanta Creek fire is burning in a generally boggy and wet area, and didn't grow much between Friday and Saturday, Ferris said. It was about 12,000 acres Saturday night.

Air tankers and helicopters were dropping water north and west of the fire on Saturday, he said.

The public meeting on the Shanta Creek fire is set for 6 p.m. at the Funny River Community Center.

Meanwhile, the biggest fire in the state was growing slowly west of Nenana.

The Minto Flats South fire grew slightly over Friday night to about 142,000 acres as of Saturday night, said Gary Lehnhausen, a spokesman with the Forestry Division.

About 60 cabins and 20 outbuildings were listed as "threatened" Saturday, but Lehnhausen said those structures are six to eight miles from the fire and in no immediate danger.

Seven crews were assigned as of Saturday to the Minto Flats fire and the much smaller, 4,400-acre Lunch Lake fire, working to assess threats to cabins and other structures in the area and figure out how to protect them.

Firefighters also were trying to keep the Lunch Lake blaze from reaching valuable stands of white spruce timber, Lehnhausen said.

Crews also prepared to protect Doyon Ltd.'s Arctic Wolf natural gas drilling site if necessary, but Lehnhausen said the site is not believed to be in serious danger, either.

"By the time it gets over to that vicinity, the fuels change to hard woods and conditions are wet," he said. "It'll just burn around that drill site."

More than 60 Alaska wildfires were listed as active.

National Weather Service meteorologist John Papineau said firefighters aren't likely to get much help from rainfall anywhere in Southcentral or Interior in the next few days.

"There might be some localized showers here and there," he said, but temperatures likely will remain in the 70s.

But the humidity has been high, and that helps, Papineau said. Low humidity makes fires burn hotter.

Written by Anchorage Daily News