Wildland fires near Healy have displaced scores of residents under evacuation orders and destroyed multiple structures including homes, according to damage assessments emerging this week.

Alaska's fire season started slowly but exploded in mid-June following a barrage of lightning strikes amid hot weather. The state has become the country's highest wildfire priority with nearly 1,500 firefighters working on 27 staffed fires as of this week.

Crews benefited from a recent run of cool, cloudy weather but warm, windy, dry conditions were setting up again by Tuesday, prompting authorities to warn the public to take extra precautions ahead of the Fourth of July holiday weekend.

Fires last month prompted evacuations near Fairbanks, Healy and Tok.

In the Denali Borough, 81 people had been displaced as of Tuesday by evacuation orders linked to the 28,300-acre Bear Creek and the 22,300-acre Saint George Creek fires, emergency manager Forest Shreeve said. Many found their own temporary accommodations, the borough helped 21 find housing, and at least one family remained at a shelter, he said.

The borough as of Tuesday had confirmed a total of 19 structures lost, six of them primary homes and another nine homes or cabins but not full-time residences, Shreeve said. It's possible at least several additional homes in the Saint George Fire area could be reported as lost, he said.

Because the fires continue to burn, borough officials are confirming structure losses by talking directly to property owners after receiving specific descriptions from fire crews.

A state disaster was declared for the Denali Borough last week.

In the Fairbanks North Star Borough, officials said they had no official reports of any structures lost, though one structure still needed to be evaluated. Evacuation orders have been lifted on several major fires.

The lightning that hammered Alaska last month was the most intense burst since 2016, climate specialist Rick Thoman said on Alaska Public Media's "Talk of Alaska" call-in show Tuesday. More than 50,000 strikes were reported in a five-day period.

Southcentral has largely escaped major wildfires so far this season despite warnings of high fire risk following a low-snow winter. But in the Interior, a combination of dry conditions and lightning sparked numerous major fires.

The Interior experienced largely normal winter snow conditions but shifted to below normal precipitation going into fire season, said Thoman, who is based at the Alaska Center for Climate Assessment and Policy at the University of Alaska Fairbanks.

June started cool in the region but the relative humidity stayed low, drying out the ground and duff layer that can fuel fire activity, he said. "And then we had the very dramatic and very rapid change to high temperatures" ahead of last month's lightning strikes.

Fire activity was expected to increase this week as a steady warming and drying trend returned, according to an update Tuesday from the Alaska Division of Forestry and Fire Protection.

The National Weather Service issued a red flag warning for Wednesday that includes parts of the Interior. Such warnings indicate weather conditions that could lead to the development of large fires.

State emergency officials said they were monitoring conditions for increasing fire activity throughout the rest of the week and upcoming holiday weekend.

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