"Damn, If only we made our house out of something a little less likely to catch fire!"

When I first saw this story, I thought how odd it is that almost the whole town could burn to the ground. Are these buildings that close to each other that the fire could travel from one to the other? How did it start in the first place? I know they use oil and propane to heat up there but find it odd that a fire would just 'start' like that. Jewnuit lightning perhaps?

Here's an excerpt from today's Anchorage Daily Newscoverage:

From the story:

After the fire erupted early Thursday morning -- state fire officials say it started in the school, but they still don't know why -- city police ordered area residents to hustle across town or to the dock in case a nearby tank farm exploded, residents said.

More than 70 people lost everything but the clothes on their backs, residents said.

Alaska State Troopers are investigating the cause of the fire with state fire marshals, said trooper spokesman Greg Wilkinson, reached by phone in Anchorage.

Is arson suspected?

"I'm not going to say," he said. "What I will say is we'll investigate all possible causes." (Comment: That's firespeak for "Yes, arson is suspected".)

The fire goes in the books as one of the worst in the state's history because it wiped out so many buildings in such a small community, said state fire marshal Gary Powell, also reached in Anchorage. The investigation could be completed by the end of next week, he said Friday.

The buildings in the old town were packed quite close together and some longtime residents did state they've been concerned about that for quite a while.

According to other local media coverage, the fire crept within 300 feet of several large community fuel oil storage tanks, enough to blister them. Only a last minute wind shift prevented the tanks, as well as up to 30 additional homes from going up.

More specifically, the fire's origin was traced to the crawl space beneath the old school. Because of permafrost, all permanent structures in Bush Alaska are built on pilings, which means there's a crawl space beneath each one. Kids could have got under there and started playing with matches. Or someone could have set it deliberately.