ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) -- Nulato officials are looking to the state for help rebuilding an uninsured government building that was destroyed by a wind-fueled fire in the Yukon River village.
The fire that raced through the 2,000-square-foot building last month burned most of the administrative and financial records for the largely Athabascan community of 320. Also lost were archives containing irreplaceable documents and photos, said Peter Demoski, administrator of Nulato's Tribal Council.
''Everything just burned completely to the ground,'' he said Monday. ''It's a devastating loss for the city.''
The tribal council has met with village officials to discuss ways to pay for a replacement, Demoski said.
Glenn Demoski, Nulato vice mayor and Peter's cousin, estimated damages at $150,000 or more.
A spokesman for the state Division of Homeland Security and Emergency Management said the agency is helping Nulato draft a local disaster declaration and request for assistance.
Once the declaration is filed with the state, an agency team will visit the community, which sits on the west bank of the Yukon River about 310 miles west of Fairbanks. After that, a panel of state officials will decide whether to recommend that a state disaster be declared, according to agency spokesman Jamie Littrell.
The governor has final say on the matter, he said.
The effects of the Nulato fire likely are not large enough to seek a federal disaster declaration, Littrell said.
''For a federal disaster, we're talking damage estimates of a million dollars or more,'' he said.
Even a fraction of the cost is money Nulato doesn't have, Peter Demoski said.
Funding has become a challenge since the state cut off revenue sharing with municipalities in 2002, forcing communities to make drastic budget cuts in basic services, such as insuring the Nulato building.
The village, like others in rural Alaska, also was ill-equipped to deal with the fire itself, relying on a ''mini fire truck'' that uses compressed air to produce firefighting foam from a small amount of water.
The night of the March 20 fire, there were also 60 mph winds.
''The winds were just knocking over trees a foot in diameter like they were twigs,'' Peter Demoski said.
One of the trees fell on a power line by the building, sparking a fire in the attic. Firefighters' efforts were futile, Demoski said.
''There was no way to stop it,'' he said. ''When building fires occur in villages in Interior Alaska, you're resigned that the building will be demolished.''
