Fire Island (Anchorage, Alaska)

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This article is about the island in Cook Inlet. For other islands in Alaska called Fire Island, see Fire Island, Alaska. For the island in New York, see Fire Island, New York.

Fire Island is a 5.5-mile (8.9 km) long island in the U.S. state of Alaska, located near the head of Cook Inlet at 61°09′34″N, 150°11′55″W. It is the only island in the Municipality of Anchorage, sitting three miles (5 km) off the city's Point Campbell, and nine miles (14.5 km) from downtown. Its land area is 17.467 km² (6.7439 sq mi, or 4,316.1 acres), and there was no permanent resident population at the 2000 census.

The island's Dena’ina name is Nutuł’iy, or "object that stands in the water". George Vancouver called it "Turnagain Island" in 1794, after Turnagain Arm, which the southeast side of the island faces. The Russian Hydrographic Department's Chart 1378, published in 1847, called it Ostrov Mushukhli (Mushukhli Island), possibly an approximation of Nutuł’iy. "Fire Island" had become established by 1895, when that name was published by the U.S. Coast and Geodetic Survey.

Fire Island was the site of Dena’ina fish camps until the 1970s. A Dena’ina elder reported that a village had once existed as well, but an epidemic forced the survivors to move to Point Possession on the Kenai Peninsula sometime before 1934. During World War II, the U.S. Army used it as an observation point to guard against Japanese submarines.

In September 1951, the U.S. Air Force 626th Airborne Control and Warning Squadron was established on the island at a base on its southern end called Fire Island AFS. Staffed by about 200 personnel, the base was an air defense radar center and Nike surface-to-air missile site for NORAD, doubling as a Federal Aviation Administration air traffic control radar and communications site. Since the island is not connected to the mainland, all supplies came by helicopter from Elmendorf Air Force Base and, during summer, by barge from Anchorage.

Fire Island AFS closed in 1969, leaving the FAA as the sole user of the island. The FAA site stayed open until 1980, when new Kenai-based radar became active. The base site was cleaned up in the 1990s, and the facilities razed. Fire Island is now owned by Cook Inlet Region, Inc., with access by permission only. Various uses have been suggested for the island since its abandonment, including an expansion of the Port of Anchorage, a replacement for Anchorage International Airport, and a wind generator farm.

Currently Chugach Electric has plans to install 24 windmills with a total combined output of 36Mw. These plans are tenative until engineers can be certain that installation of these will not result in the disruption of local airport radio signals. The main concerns are with RADAR and VOR disruption.