No snow, dry grass spell fire season

PALMER — Valley residents might not have noticed, but fire season is upon us.

The season is typically defined by the time during which burn permits are required for anyone setting things on fire in the Mat-Su Borough — April 1 through Aug. 31. Now is the most dangerous time of year, when dry, cured grass that spent a winter under snow is all around the Valley, just waiting for a spark.

So far, fire officials say, there have been a handful of low-level brush fires this month.

“I know of three in the last couple of weeks, very minor, very, very minor,” said Dennis Brodigan, director of emergency services for the borough.

He said recent snow flurries have kept fire danger down. But that is likely to change.

“It’ll start in earnest here as soon as this stuff dries up, and I think we’re predicted to start getting into the 50s here (by this week),” Brodigan said.

He couldn’t make an accurate prediction on what this year’s fire season will bring, having heard too many conflicting accounts.

“It just depends on who you talk to whether it’s predicted to be a bad season or a good season,” he said.

Over at the Central Mat-Su Fire Department, Michael Keenan said firefighters are finishing up their training. Their fire engines have been outfitted for wildland firefighting and are ready to roll.

He agrees with Brodigan that so far fire season has been relatively quiet.

“We had a grass fire (April 20) that we caught real quick, like a half-acre grass fire,” he said.

Other than that, there hasn’t been much in Central’s coverage area.

The state’s Division of Forestry is also gearing up for fire season. Tom Greiling, fire prevention specialist, said the division just recently finished up the last bit of its statewide fire engine driving academy. Forestry crews have also been sent out to a number of small brush fires.

“People really need to be aware of the dangers of burning around this dry, cured grass,” Greiling said.

Residents also need to make sure they get a burn permit — and read it, he said. Permits are available at forestry.alaska.gov/burn. Greiling said that, just like every year, the fires he’s been to so far have been due to ignorance.

“Usually the individual burning does not have a burn permit or they had it and they did not read the guidelines for safe burning,” he said.

That was the case at a recent fire at the Butte. A grass fire got out of control and burned down a 10-foot travel trailer on the property.

“The guy did not have a burn permit, he was burning without water, without a garden hose, in windy conditions,” Greiling said. “It burned his camper. He’s lucky that’s all that happened.”

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