Firestorm blows through Palmer farm

PALMER -- A wind-blown grass fire spread and consumed two barns and a shed at a farm property just south of downtown Palmer Wednesday night. Borough and state firefighters worked until about 5 a.m. Thursday on the initial attack at the fire scene. One man escaped the fire by fleeing a farmhouse that was, Thursday morning, surrounded by burnt grass.

Palmer Fire Chief Dan Contini said the fire started upwind from the farm property, just across the street form Matanuska Electric Association's Lucas substation. It started with a power line and high winds, according to Contini, who said another started further north, just as the first fire was being brought under control. The second fire accounts for the large burnt area that drivers see across the Glenn Highway and from the Taco Bell/Glacierview Tesoro station.

Richard Taylor narrowly escaped the south-Palmer fire Wednesday night. Taylor said he was inside the farmhouse at about 9 p.m. when he smelled smoke, he said. Within a minute, he evacuated the property while flames surrounded the house.

"I can't believe this house is still here," Taylor said.

Taylor was house-sitting the property for tenants who live at the farm but were traveling this week. The property is owned by the family of Jalmar Kerttula, according to Taylor.

"I had just got here and I thought I needed to walk around and look for wind damage -- luckily I did," Taylor said.

Outside, Taylor saw a grass fire being spread by the wind on the east side of the house. Upwind, just north of the house, Taylor saw the fire had spread to pole barn full of hay bales, he said.

"Big chunks of burning hay were flying everywhere," Taylor said.

Two medium-sized dogs were in the house, a chocolate-colored lab named Clyde and a husky-mix who answers to Bugsy. Taylor decided to climb the hill west of the house to escape the fire, which was spreading through grass and hayfields on the property. He called the dogs, but Clyde and Bugsy apparently ran back into the house while Taylor ran up the hill.

"I only had about 30 seconds to get out of here," Taylor said. " … It was so fast I could hardly believe it."

Soon, the fire consumed two barns and a storage shed and damaged other buildings and equipment on the property. Once on the hillside, Taylor ran north to a place where he thought he could safely cross the burning hayfield and get to the Glenn Highway, where firefighters were beginning to arrive.

Taylor's wife Wendy said she was returning from a meeting at Palmer High School just after 9 p.m. when she met firefighters who were stopping traffic on the Glenn Highway.

"I saw somebody with a pack running across the field," Wendy said.

That was her husband, Richard, running through the field at the upwind end of the fire. Richard recalled weaving through patches of still-burning hay stubble.

Once they were reunited, the Taylors told the firefighters there were no people missing, but that the two dogs were still in the house. Richard was going to go in the house himself, but decided that was job for the firefighters.

"I asked the firemen for help. They were better equipped than I was, and I was puking and coughing," Richard said.

Clyde and Bugsy were saved. Richard suspects they retreated into the farmhouse to hide from the fire while he ran up the hill.

There was still work to be done on the Kerttula farm fire Thursday. A stockpile of 55-gallon drums was still smoking and flames were coming off the tops of some of the drums. Contini said he suspected the drums contained oil.

"We had a couple of choices last night," Contini said. "We could put it out and pollute a lot of water, or we could let it burn and put it into the environment that way."

Contini was trying to contact officials from the Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation Thursday morning. DEC had left messages for Contini early Thursday, who said he suspects they wanted to have a conversation about the barrels.

"I have no idea how [DEC officials] found out about this so soon," Contini said. "… I need to ask them what sort of information they need."

At press time, Contini had no detailed information about further plans for the burning barrels. Contini said it was his understanding that the barrels had been purchased as surplus from the military some years ago and that the stockpile had been moved from one Kerttula property to another at some point.

"Some of them were exploding while we were out there," Contini said of the drums.

High winds, sub-zero temperatures, a spreading grass fire and a stock-pile of old fuel drums made for a remarkable scene Thursday night, Contini said. Contini estimated firefighters had about 10,000 feet of frozen hose to round up at the scene Thursday.

"That's one of the consequences of fighting fire in cold weather," Contini said. "It was a couple of degrees below zero when we finished."