Miller’s Reach Fire changed the way the Valley fights fires

MAT-SU — The Miller’s Reach didn’t just change the landscape, it literally changed the way Mat-Su firefighters do their job.

The fire, which started on Sunday night — June 2, 1996, burned more than 37,000 acres, destroyed at least 344 buildings and caused $10 million in damages, and caused the evacuation of approximately 1,800 people.

The Miller’s Reach Fire started at 4:45 p.m., temporarily closing the Parks Highway, and quickly spread to about 60 acres. By night, though still burning, the fire was partially contained. By Tuesday evening, however, the fire had burned across 10,000 acres, and more than 50 homes had been destroyed.

Bill Gamble was chief of the Big Lake Fire Department in 1996 when the fire occurred; he’s now the chief at West Lakes Fire and Rescue. He said that fire had a significant impact on how local firefighters deal with fires, and it has to do with speed.

Back then, he said, the Department of Forestry handled all wildland fires and borough firefighters stuck to structures.

“If it wasn’t a house or a vehicle or a building, that was considered their territory, not ours,” he said. “But because of the Miller’s Reach fire, we had a big awakening.”

Now, Gamble said, borough firefighters receive extensive training in both structural and wildland firefighting. Furthermore, what used to be a very territorial relationship with Forestry is now a very cooperative one.

“Now, we respond together. We work really well together,” he said.

There’s also an urgency toward wildland fires that wasn’t there before, Gamble said. “If anybody calls in a fire — a wildland fire, a structural fire, it doesn’t matter, we get right on it. Whereas, we used to wait and allow Forestry to respond to certain fires that were sort of ‘theirs’... now, we don’t wait, we get right on it,” he said.

There is also a difference in the kind of gear and equipment the borough purchases. “Now, we buy and issue gear to fight both kinds of fires,” Gamble said. “From April to September, our firefighters go out with two sets of gear: one for house fires, one for wildland fires. Not just one or the other anymore.”

Gamble said he also believes the 1996 fire altered the way borough residents react to fire.

“People don’t take it lightly around here,” he said. “They watch out for their neighbors. If they see something, they’ll call, and then they’ll get out there and do what they can as well.”

That’s important to firefighters.

“Speed is critical,” Gamble said. “If you see something, don’t ever hesitate to call. Because the faster we can get on a fire, the sooner we can get it under control.”