Fire burns 3 acres, homes spared

PALMER — The first major brush fire of the year was a scary one for nearby homeowners and Mat-Su responders, burning up three acres of land in a subdivision south of the Parks Highway Sunday.

“It had significant potential. We were very concerned,” said Central Mat-Su Deputy Fire Chief Michael Keenan, of the fire that dragged around 20 firefighters away from their Easter celebrations. “This thing could have taken structures easily if the circumstances had just been a little bit different.”

Norm McDonald, Mat-Su fire management officer for the state’s Division of Forestry, said the fire started when a homeowner was burning debris on Fetlock Drive. Fire spread from the debris pile into nearby dry grass, jumped the railroad tracks there and ran up a hill, threatening homes on Morning Mist Drive. The neighborhood is near Machetanz Elementary School.

Keenan said that homeowners on top of that steep hill were wetting down the grass and keeping the fire at bay with garden hoses.

“Those are very large, million-dollar plus homes up on that hill,” he said.

Luckily, the homeowners had some help even before the fire trucks arrived.

“One of our former chief officers lives up there,” Keenan said. “When I pulled in … I handed the hose to him, and then my guys got right on the nozzle when they were ready.”

In addition to Forestry and Central Mat-Su, crews from the Palmer Fire Department also showed up.

“It took pretty much everything they had there to catch it,” McDonald said.

He said that the fire was the biggest Forestry has fought so far this fire season.

“It was the first larger fire that we’ve had that actually kind of got up and was running through the grass,” McDonald said. “It was the first indicator that the real fire season is here and we’re going to have to chase them to get them.”

He said resources were stretched thin that day.

“What we’re worried about when you get a fire like that with a lot of resources going to it is a second start,” he said.

By “second start” he meant another fire in the Valley that would be difficult to fight with everyone responding to the first one.

Luckily, that didn’t happen Sunday. Keenan said it was the second grass fire his guys worked that weekend. The first, in the neighborhoods near Shenandoah Drive, partially burned a large outbuilding after escaping from a burn barrel and running through the grass.

Both Keenan and McDonald warned about the potential for wildfires to start between now and when the grass and trees finally turn green.

“People need to know the grass is dry,” Keenan said. “The potential for fire to spread rapidly is very high right now.”

McDonald stressed the importance of getting a burn permit — you can get them online at dnr.alaska.gov/forestry/burn — calling the phone number on it to make sure it’s a safe day to burn, and watching fires with water close at hand.

“This is a good example of how you just turn your back on a fire for a second and you’ve got trouble,” McDonald said.

Contact Andrew Wellner at 352-2270 or andrew.wellner@frontiersman.com.