Alaska Briefs
Man hurt in gas line fire
ANCHORAGE - A man injured in a natural gas main explosion and fire has been released from the hospital.
Sasha Clapper, 30, an employee of Quality Asphalt Paving, was taken to Providence Alaska Medical Center with second-degree burns on 25 percent of his body. He was treated and released, according to a nursing supervisor.
The cause of the explosion was under investigation.
The fire burned for about an hour until Enstar Natural Gas Co. cut off gas to the ruptured 2-inch main.
The explosion and fire snarled traffic in an area already slowed for weeks by construction.
Firefighters and witnesses said flames erupted 8 feet to 10 feet into the air. Clapper received a flash burn and ran out of the pit with his clothes on fire, Watts said.
Clapper had been working in an excavation area with a propane torch, said fire department spokesman Tom Kempton. The plastic gas main was exposed in a trench dug as part of road reconstruction work.
Douglas Bridge plan consideration delayed
JUNEAU - The Juneau Assembly will wait until Monday to reconsider its stand on a state plan to change the configuration of the Douglas Bridge.
City officials last week said they expected the controversial plan to be discussed during a Wednesday work session. But at the meeting, members said it would come up Monday night.
The plan, which has been voted up and down by the Juneau Planning Commission and Assembly committees, would change the two-lane bridge to a three-lane route with a reversible center lane. Separate bike lanes would be removed. Traffic lanes on both sides of the bridge also would change and a traffic circle would be built on the Douglas side.
DOT officials have said they want the Assembly's approval before proceeding with the project. The state's deadline for city action was the end of August, but the city asked for and was granted an extension.
Few pay after Anchorage posts deadbeat list
ANCHORAGE - More than 37,000 hits were logged over the holiday weekend on the city's delinquent debt Web site after its launch was announced Friday, the mayor's office said.
The Web site, www.muni.org/finance/dcf.cfm, lists the names of 21,000 people who owe the city more than $17 million in old fines and fees.
By midnight Monday, the city received $2,600 from 15 payments on the Internet, the mayor's office said Tuesday.
And on Tuesday, six people walked into the city clerk's office and paid about $1,500, said Julie Hasquet, director of communications for Mayor Mark Begich.
Debts owed to the city have piled up over the past 20 years. After an internal audit showed the city was owed around $21 million, the city created the Web site to collect some of the money.
Two injured after driving into wire
BETHEL - Two residents of Napaskiak, a village of about 400 people seven miles southeast of Bethel, were injured on a four-wheeler after they drove into a wire that had been strung across a boardwalk.
Alaska State Troopers said two juveniles who strung the wire have been arrested.
The boys, 15 and 16, stretched the wire across the boardwalk at the entrance to a small bridge Sunday afternoon.
A short while later, Yago Evan rode toward the bridge. He was carrying his infant daughter in front of him. Troopers said the wire hit Evan across his neck just under his chin. The baby girl was hit across the face at a diagonal running between both of her eyes. Both were torn from the all-terrain vehicle, troopers said.
Troopers said Evan could easily have been decapitated and his daughter blinded. The two teens were charged with two counts each of assault and reckless endangerment.
Oil exploration license offered in Bristol Bay
ANCHORAGE - The Alaska Division of Oil and Gas has received two expressions of interest in its oil exploration license offering in the Bristol Bay region.
That is one step in the state's efforts to open onshore swaths of the Bristol Bay region to oil and gas development.
Companies had until Aug. 25 to notify the division of their intent to submit a proposal, and they now have until Sept. 23 to submit the proposal. The state will then go out with a public notice and also solicit for competing proposals, said Jim Hansen, the division's leasing manager.
"By the end of November, we will know for sure how many applicants we have," Hansen said.
Because of the competitive nature of the exploration license bid process, the names of companies expressing interest are not being released.
Three die in plane crash
ANCHORAGE - Three people have died in a plane crash about 50 miles southwest of Glennallen.
A Cessna 206 piloted by Glyn Bindon, 66, of Homer crashed Tuesday between Gunsight and Sheep mountains, Alaska State Troopers said.
Bindon and two passengers on board, Mark Duvall, 47, and his wife, Tammy Duvall, 36, both of Homer, were killed, the troopers said.
Federal Aviation Administration spokeswoman Joette Storm said the plane was flying from Homer to Whitehorse. Trooper spokesman Greg Wilkinson said Bindon is believed to have "buzzed" a friend's airstrip at Mile 81 of the Glenn Highway about 10 a.m. Tuesday. The friend, who had taught Bindon to fly, recognized his plane, Wilkinson said.
1 arrested, 1 sought in attempted drowning
KOBUK - A woman was in jail Wednesday and a man was being sought in an attempted drowning of a 31-year-old man whose face was held down in a puddle, Alaska State Troopers said.
Harold Horner, 27, and Johnetta Cleveland, 30, both of Kobuk, had gotten into an argument with Allen Ward, also of Kobuk, early Sunday, trooper spokesman Greg Wilkinson said.
Two witnesses saw Ward being held face down in a puddle and intervened before he was seriously hurt, troopers said. Horner then got into his truck and tried to ram the home of the witnesses, but his truck stalled, troopers said.