MAT-SU — If the National Weather Service is correct, people in the Valley might be able to keep their hats on today and their trash cans upright.

The weather service predicted the recent windy weather would ease as a new month comes around.

High winds kept emergency crews busy Thursday and Friday, mostly responding to downed power lines and minor grass fires.

ROBERT DeBERRY/Frontiersman A member of the Mat-Su Central Fire Department sprays an area of downed trees and grass off Foothill Boulevard on Friday.

Clint Vardeman, Deputy Director of Emergency Services for the borough said he’d told the various Valley fire chiefs that they could staff up their stations Friday so trucks would be ready to roll.

“We’re just gearing up in preparation, just in case,” he said.

Despite the wind blowing cars around on the road, Vardeman said he didn’t see anything more than the usual activity of car wrecks.

Over at the Central Mat-Su Fire Department, Assistant Chief Michael Keenan said Friday that he and his crews had been busy.

“Yesterday we had like seven calls in an hour so that got a little bit hectic,” he said.

The problem, he said, is that the grass right now is very dry. When lines go down and start shooting off sparks, it doesn’t take long for a fire to start.

He mentioned one fire Thursday on Old Matanuska Spur.

“A tree fell on a power line and started a grass fire that was between two houses.”

Both houses were threatened, he said, but the homeowners did a good job keeping the fire contained while they waited for firefighters to show up.

“Yesterday they were getting trees on power lines all the way up in Talkeetna and Sutton,” he said. “It’s all over the place.”

Strong winds pushed flames from an ill-advised burn barrel into dry grass behind a house on Foothills Boulevard at about 4:30 p.m. on Friday. The fire only consumed about half an acre, thanks in large part to having the stations staffed, Keenan said at the scene.

“There was lots of potential here. There are structures downwind. We’re lucky we got here when we did,” Keenan said.

By 5 p.m., crews were spraying foam into brush piles at the back of the property. Keenan said they call these “wind rows.” Property owners clear the foliage from their land, then new growth grows over the cuttings left on site.

Not only do wind rows amplify the wind, but fire gets trapped inside and smolders.

“We will be here for several hours dumping water into these things,” Keenan said.

Over on the police side, things were comparatively quiet. Palmer Police Department Detective Sgt. Kelly Turney said he’d heard a report of a truck canopy blowing down the road.

But Commander Tom Remaley said none of the activity really needed or drew a police response.

“To my knowledge we have had no wind-related calls. I know there’s probably trash cans blowing around and dust in the air, you can feel it smacking your car,” but none of that is for the police department to worry about, he said.

Keenan said fighting fires in the wind is an extremely difficult proposition. Obviously grass fires are tough. But so are house fires.

“If it’s broken through and windows have been compromised and the wind’s allowed to get into that structure, it’s very difficult and not very safe for us to try to attack that kind of fire,” he said.

   

Todd L. Disher contributed to this story. Contact Andrew Wellner at andrew.wellner@frontiersman.com or 352-2270.