Fire consumes home, cars

PALMER — Firefighters trying to extinguish a house fire in a subdivision near the city wound up calling in extra help to stamp out spot fires in the woods.

“They became concerned because blowing embers were being caught by the wind and carried away,” said Jon Owen, the city’s Emergency Services director. “Different strike teams went to cover to contain the fire.”

The fire was in a home on Laurel Drive near its intersection with Witez II Lane. Those roads are both in the Equestrian Acres subdivision off the Palmer-Wasilla Highway. Embers were reported touching off fires 800 feet away on Ortner Loop, the closest road to Equestrian Acres on the west side.

Owen said teams were stationed as far away as Colony High School, a little over half a mile away as the crow flies. They were there just as a precaution, Owen said.

“They confined it to about a square mile, they think. Now, that’s not to imply that a square mile was ignited,” Owen said. “There’d be a spot fire in some trees and they’d put it out.”

And those spot fires were contained to a square mile.

Owen said that overall, there were 45 pieces of apparatus — fire trucks, ambulances, fire department SUVs — that responded to the fire. Four more were put on standby in various fire stations around the Valley.

In addition to the Palmer Fire Department, apparatus came from Central Mat-Su Fire Department, West Lakes Fire Department and Butte Fire Department. Even the Sutton Fire Department sent a tanker.

Alaska State Troopers also were at the scene and report in a press release that two people were taken from the home to Mat-Su Regional Medical Center for treatment of injuries that were not life-threatening.

“Alaska State Troopers responded to homes downwind to notify residents of the fire and the possible danger. Firefighters were able to keep the fire controlled and an evacuation was not warranted,” according to the press release.

The state fire marshal’s office sent investigators out. Owen said that not all fires require that type of response, but this one did for a couple of reasons. First, Palmer firefighters that can usually investigate a fire’s cause and origin were busy Sunday into Monday fighting the fire and then monitoring the ashes to make sure hot spots didn’t flare up. Secondly, this was a large fire.

“If it’s something that’s really high profile we tend to call in the experts on that,” Owen said.

Both he and other officials warned about fire danger in the Valley where warm weather has melted the snowpack and high winds were blowing.

“We are asking everybody to be really careful about any sources of ignition,” he said. “The conditions right now are remarkably similar to what they were in November of 2012 when we had the Cedar Hills fire.”

The Cedar Hills fire, set off when high winds pushed over a trailer, threw up sparks as it was dragged along the pavement, caused numerous people in a small subdivision along the Glenn Highway north of Palmer to evacuate. Flames came within feet of homes.

Traditionally, winter in Alaska is an unusual time of year to be worrying about wildfires. Norm McDonald, fire management officer with the Alaska Division of Forestry, said that with weather like this, his firefighters might have their work cut out for them when he calls them back to work in April.

“We have quite a bit of time before April, but it definitely can be an early fire season if we don’t get some snow between now and then,” McDonald said.

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