Fire season off to early start

MAT-SU — Be careful out there: Despite what the calendar says, wildfire season is upon us.

“Unless we get snow between now and May, I think we’re definitely in the start of it. We’re snow free for most of the core area here through Anchorage and all the way down to the Kenai,” said Norm McDonald, Mat-Su Fire Management Officer with the Alaska Division of Forestry.

Palmer Assistant Fire Chief Todd Russell agreed, but took it a step further.

“Due to the fact that we’ve had very little snow, I’d say all winter has been the (fire) season just because of hardly any moisture,” he said.

McDonald said Forestry crews returned to work March 1.

“We’ve got our engine staffed,” he said. “We still don’t have our regular aircraft. Our helicopter starts April 28, and our air tanker starts May 1.”

Both he and Russell urged Mat-Su residents to be cautious when burning.

“If they could wait until we get into some rain, that would be the best bet,” McDonald said.

McDonald and Russell agreed on another point as well — March is early to be fighting wildfires.

“It’s becoming something that’s more common for us to be snow free in March and start picking up fires in March,” McDonald said. “Historically it would be end of April/early May.”

Forestry and local firefighters responded to several grass and wildland fires recently, including one late Friday afternoon in a neighborhood of Schrock Road.

Contact Andrew Wellner at 315-4074 or andrew.wellner@frontiersman.com.