Firefighting by the numbers

The Mat-Su fire response crews this year have already been working on fires throughout the area. Out of the total 121 fires reported already this year, the Mat-Su Division of Forestry alone has handled more than half.

Standing, looking out the left side of his air tanker, Canadian pilot John Marisco reflects about his 15-year bombing career. Before flying air tankers Marisco came from the Canadian Air Force doing what he says was a similar job.

"This process is very safe," said Marisco, a British Columbia resident of Vancouver Island.

"Every fire is different, but the process we go through to drop the retardant is pretty routine," Marisco said, "we get the information we need to drop."

Prior to being interviewed, Marisco was laying down on a cot at the rear of his plane. Down time -- time between missions -- is filled with a lot of reading and sleeping, he said. He also said he enjoys the area, and at any given time loves to go out and explore.

On Thursday, outside the Forestry office, McDonald and pilot Wiley Simon were teaching the operations of the Bell 212 helicopter used in aerial attacks to students taking a Forestry-offered helicopter course. The cloudy skies were stirred by wind coming out of the south. Pioneer Peak toward the end of the day was draped in a slight haze, and so were the rest of the surrounding mountains, reminiscent of the scene just two months ago when massive wind storms ripped through the area.

On the other side of the building the seemingly never-ending pile of hose was being pressure tested and recoiled for future use.

McDonald and Simon discussed the safety and operations of the aircraft and its usefulness during a fire situation.

Forestry this year reports they have trained about 160 to about 180 firefighters.

Seasonal firefighter Rob Larson, who is taking a lunch break in the Mat-Su office, described working on a fire.

"It's exciting," Larson said, "the most satisfaction is when we win."

While forking in every morsel from his hot bowl of noodles he described the most important factor in fighting fires.

"Safety first," he said "you gotta have safety first."

"I love my job," he added.

In the past 13 years there have been 1,517 fires in the Mat-Su area with a combined consumed acreage of 42,585. That's an average of 116 fires per year with each fire averaging about 28 acres. Some annual reports are better than others, like in 1998 when there were 77 fires and only 52 acres destroyed. In 1996 there were 186 fires and 37,781 acres destroyed -- the Miller's Reach fire claimed most of that acreage, with 37,366. Had it not been for the devastation of the Miller's Reach fire, there would only have been 415 acres burned in 185 fires. That's an average of slightly more than two acres per fire that year.

"We catch our fires," said Lynn Wilcock.

When you look at the total number of fires divided by the number of acreage, the fire consumption appears low.

"We have a good record, we take care of our fires and have done a good job keeping the damage down, sometimes nature takes control and there is nothing that can be done, it's just nature," Wilcock added.

With the responsibilities involved in operating a fire agency, the Mat-Su division of Forestry looks and feels confident about the coming months. Now nearly a month into the fire season, the process of managing a fire is becoming a lot more routine according to McDonald.

"We're ready," he said with a serious but confident look in his eye.