Borough kicks off Firewise program

MAT-SU -- They're armed with chainsaws, hoses and double-headed axes as long as the average person's leg, and they're on a mission to slash and burn their way across the Valley. It's not a local filming of next year's summer blockbuster, it's two local fire crews, working to reduce the risk of wildland fire in the Mat-Su Borough.

Two crews -- one made up of eight borough firefighters and one of 10 Division of Forestry firefighters -- just wrapped up two weeks of work in Willow, clearing a piece of borough property near the Willow Fire Department. Next week, they'll begin clearing deadfall, lower limbs on spruce trees and other potential fire fuel on borough property near Butte Elementary School. Their work is being funded by two federal allocations totaling nearly $3 million -- funding that will be spread over several years to help the borough reduce the risk of wildland fire brought on, in part, by spruce bark beetle devastation.

"Just as with funds given to the Municipality of Anchorage and the Kenai Peninsula Borough through the federal Department of Agriculture, it didn't come with an end date," said Mat-Su Borough Emergency Management Project Coordinator Bea Adler. "Basically, the letter says, 'We recognize the immediate fire danger posed by the spruce bark beetle.'"

The Mat-Su Borough Assembly recently approved a detailed scope of work for using the funds over four years, Adler said, and the focus this summer will be on two areas -- the reduction of wildland fire fuels in wildland/urban interface areas of the Mat-Su Borough, and the development of sustainable strategies for tree removal, utilization of trees removed and education about defensible space. To fulfill those goals, fire crews will be working to clear public land of excess fire fuel, and will be available to do home assessments, to help borough property owners understand the need for and how to achieve defensible space around their homes.

Forest stewards

The first goal -- to mitigate wildland fire in the wildland/urban interface -- is what the Forestry and borough crews were working on in Willow, and will continue working on throughout the summer in different areas of the borough.

The wildland/urban interface, Adler said, refers to areas that may be heavily treed, but are being developed by homeowners. Miller's Reach, Adler said, is an example of what can happen when fire goes through a mix of wildland and urban property. More than 450 structures were consumed by that fire, which rolled across more than 37,000 acres in 13 days in 1996.

Clayton Jones, crew boss of the Forestry crew working with the borough on the program, was with Forestry during the Miller's Reach fire and has worked several other large fires, including the 2000 fire in the Bitterroot National Forest in Montana. Jones said Southcentral Alaska forests are sometimes referred to as "asbestos forests," referring to the prevalence of hardwoods that resist fire. The task of the two crews working on public land, he said, is to reduce the amount of black and white spruce that more readily act as fuel for fires.

"It's not that a fire wouldn't burn through this," said Brian Shea, supervisor of the wildland fire mitigation crew for the Mat-Su Borough. "A lot of fires start with a burn barrel or ground fire -- we're removing the lower limbs from the trees to try to prevent that."

For the Forestry crew, the project is a good training exercise, Jones said. Crew members get a chance to use their fire-fighting tools and deal with fire fuels and understand its capacity to burn -- without being in a fire-fighting situation. And there have been occasions to learn. Jones said one crew member, while working in Willow, was struck in the face by an eight-foot willow branch. His upper jaw was broken in seven places, his nose was broken and he had a minor concussion. Because several borough fire crew members have also been trained in emergency medical skills, the Forestry crew member received medical attention almost immediately, and was flown to Providence Hospital in Anchorage less than an hour after the incident.

Shea and Jones said both crews are learning from working together. Borough firefighting crews deal more often with structure fires, while Forestry crews primarily work on wildland fires. With continued growth in the Valley, as well as in mountainous areas Outside, Jones said the cross-over knowledge is more useful.

"I've seen urban interface pushed as a huge topic," Jones said. "The more people move up here and the more they move into the woods, the more need for that extra training."

Jones said his crew will remain on the project unless called on to fight fires elsewhere in the state.

Home defenders

The second goal of the program requires more public involvement. Shea said along with helping Forestry crews clear out excess fuel, his crew is assessing residents' property to help them understand how to create defensible space, and where they can make changes to protect their property from fire damage in the case of a wildland fire.

"A lot of it is really simple stuff," Shea said. By moving a pile of logs, trimming back trees or shrubs and removing dead leaves and debris, a home can be protected from fire, he said. "In one afternoon, a lot of that stuff can be taken care of."

And the difference, both Shea and Jones said, can be seen readily in areas where wildland fire has passed through. Stories abound of subdivisions ravaged by fire, in which a single home was left standing because the homeowners had prepared in advance for potential fires. Shea and Jones said when a fire is going through an area, fire crews are often unable to try to protect every single home -- only those that appear they can be saved are targeted in the firefighting effort, Jones said.

"We have only so much energy and time to protect a home," Jones said. "If the need is too great for the resources on hand, there's nothing we can do about it."

Shea said if homeowners clear back surrounding vegetation to at least 30 feet from the house, and pay attention to vegetation on slopes, they can make their property one that can be more easily saved in the instance of a fire.

"It's a choice, whether or not a homeowner wants to reduce their fire danger," Shea said.

Shea said he and his crew members have visited nearly 50 homes in the borough to do fire danger assessments. Many of those calls came in shortly after a flyer was sent out to about 19,000 property owners in the borough, discussing the Firewise program. The flow of calls has slowed now, Shea said, and he and his crew are anxious to do more.

"We're willing to educate homeowners," Shea said. "We've got the education, and we're waiting for the phone calls."

Shea said his crew is available from 9 a.m. to 7 p.m., seven days a week. Call 373-8823 to schedule a home visit.

In conjunction with the home assessments, Adler said she's working to ready a program that would help homeowners with the cost of removing trees or doing some of the work to protect their homes from fire. Adler is working to compile a list of contractors willing to do the work and, once the list is available, homeowners will be able to call those contractors, have the work done, and submit the paperwork to the borough for a reimbursement up to 70 percent. The reimbursement, Adler said, will only cover work done as a direct result of recommendations made by the mitigation team, Adler said.

"It's not to clear everything so they can build a garage," Adler said. She said the reimbursement program will be offered on a first-come, first-served basis. "The program will last as long as there's money available."

Those interested in having a home assessment done, or who have questions about the mitigation program, can call the Wildfire Mitigation hotline at 373-8823. Any borough resident -- inside or outside the city limits of Palmer, Wasilla or Houston -- can have a home assessment done, Adler said. Adler said members of the mitigation crew are already working on a booth they'll have at the Alaska State Fair, and more information, as well as interactive learning exercises, will be available at that booth.

Contact Rindi White at rindi.white@frontiersman.com.