Hose laid for fuel transfer at iced-in Alaska town

ANCHORAGE, Alaska — Crews have laid a hose along a half mile stretch of Bering Sea ice and hope to soon begin transferring 1.3 million gallons of fuel from a Russian fuel tanker to the iced-in western Alaska city of Nome.

Stacey Smith of Vitus Marine says the offloading could begin before sundown Monday. Vitus is the fuel supplier that arranged to have the Russian tanker Renda and its crew deliver the fuel.

Smith says crews are working on hooking the hose Monday to a shoreside pipeline leading to storage tanks in town. The city of 3,500 didn't get its last pre-winter barge fuel delivery because of a massive November storm.

Without the Renda's delivery, Nome would run out of fuel by March or April, long before the next barge delivery is possible.