Mat-Su fights fires, frets over floods

PALMER — The story of the past couple weeks around the Mat-Su has to include both wildfires and flooding.

“We’ve got all this water and we’re in a red flag (wildfire) situation, go figure right?” said Talkeetna Fire Chief Ken Farina, referring to the Red Flag Warning the Valley was under Thursday afternoon due to dry weather and combustible fuels. As of press time Thursday evening, borough fire crews were responding to a fire in the Point MacKenzie area that had consumed at least three acres. The area was reported on emergency band radio as being accessible by four-wheelers and that it had already consumed one cabin. Read this story online at frontiersman.com for updates on the Point MacKenzie fire.

Farina was actually worried more about the floods than the fires, though. His part of the Valley had been relatively quiet on the fire front, but was staffing up Thursday night to keep an eye on Montana Creek.

“We’re going to go back and check all the hot spots — Kalispell Road; Yoder Road, which overflowed last night actually; Montana Creek Campground — all the usual suspects where it floods.”

The Talkeetna area was among the hardest hit in last year’s floods. At the end of fall as the rivers froze up, there had been dire warnings about an ice jam on the Talkeetna River and fears of renewed flooding this summer.

“There were several jams all the way up to Curry and beyond actually,” Farina said. But the water pressure kept them from being a problem. “The jams never got to establish themselves, which was a good thing.”

The Susitna River, he said, was clear of ice, according to a local helicopter pilot who called in a report.

Meanwhile, in the more southern reaches of the Valley, firefighters were being kept busy with grass and brush fires.

Possibly the most dramatic was in Skwentna where an escaped burn pile had sent fire into the woods.

That was the first drop of fire retardant from an air tanker in the state for this fire season, McDonald said.

“The fire was caused by a debris burn that occurred three days earlier, which had been surrounded by snow and that the landowner believed was out,” according to the state’s daily digest of fire reports.

McDonald said that no homes have burned, but a handful of outbuildings — sheds, greenhouses, etc. — have been destroyed.

Official state tallies as of Thursday afternoon counted 30 fires in the Mat-Su/Anchorage area with at least 16.1 acres burned.

McDonald said the bulk of the blazes have been escaped human-caused burns — burn barrels, debris piles, lawn fires.

“Even though there’s a burn suspension going on day three there are a lot of people who haven’t gotten message,” he said.

As of Thursday afternoon, burning was still suspended in the Mat-Su due to the Red Flag Warning. Nothing larger than a campfire is allowed and even those are strongly discouraged.

To check if the ban is still in effect, visit forestry.alaska.gov/burn.

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