Local crews ready for conflagrations

PALMER — The state Division of Forestry building at the Palmer Airport is swarming with firefighters. Folks are taking classes, picking up their Nomex shirts, proving their physical fitness and taking tests to drive fire engines.

Yes, it’s that time of year, when the snow is moving out and the Division of Forestry is gearing up to fight another season’s worth of wildfires.

“It started off with a bang,” said Anchorage and Mat-Su Fire Management Officer Norm McDonald, noting that in March, Forestry responded to more than a dozen fires.

That includes a fire that ran up the side of Boddenburg Butte and another that started near Jim Creek March 31, burning 206 acres, according to the state’s Bureau of Land Management Web site. Forestry is monitoring the area. Luckily, that trend hasn’t continued into April.

“The snow we had the last couple of weeks has slowed it down,” McDonald said.

Thursday, firefighters took safety refresher courses and practiced deploying fire shelters. The shelters — hi-tech sheets made of aluminum foil and other materials — are a last resort for firefighters, used when there’s no other choice.

Out on the runway, fire engines rolled through a test course. Down at the road, folks geared up with weighted packs and ran up to three miles to satisfy their fitness test requirements. Everyone in Forestry who will be at or near the fire line has to take such a test, though there are different degrees of testing, from light to arduous.

“Chances are I’m not going to have to outrun a fire or a grizzly bear,” public information officer Matt Weaver said. He takes the moderate test, two miles without a pack.

Glenn Holt, another information officer, said Palmer’s firefighting helicopter showed up this week and its retardant-dropping air tanker is expected to show up May 1.

Crews have been gearing up for the past two or three weeks and have either formed or are in the process of forming, he said. Right now, even the crews could probably respond to a fire without too much notice.

The Pioneer Peak crew, a Type 1 firefighting crew, is up and running, but hasn’t done much in the way of “project” work, Holt said. Project work involves fire mitigation work, like prepping the forest to keep wildfires away from homes.

On the Pioneer Peak crew, “if it’s raining and nothing’s burning, you’ll have work,” Holt said.

Add to that the fact that most crews perform work all over the country, Holt said summers can get pretty busy.

“The Lower 48’s been burning up more than usual,” Holt said. “These guys are never hurting for work.”

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