Spring brings wildfire season

MAT-SU — Like Daylight Saving Time, wildfire season has come early to Alaska and the Mat-Su Valley.

“We’ve already had 11 fires,” said Ken Bullman, Mat-Su Area forester for the state’s Division of Forestry. That includes a fire that climbed up the side of Bodenburg Butte last week.

“It’s definitely starting earlier than normal,” Bullman said of the wildfire season. Most years, March is much quieter, he said.

Bullman said burn permits, which aren’t required in the winter months, go into effect today and will be required until Aug. 31.

Dennis Brodigan, director of emergency services for the Mat-Su Borough, said that on his end it certainly feels like wildfire season has come early. The most obvious sign? Concerned neighbors have lately begun calling in about burn piles.

“Usually in the winter we don’t get calls about controlled burns unless it’s putting out a lot of black smoke,” he said. Black smoke is a sign a fire may be burning something toxic.

Luckily, the Borough had started training early so it hasn’t been caught flat-footed, he said. When the butte caught fire, he said Forestry firefighters were actually in training with Borough firefighters.

On Forestry’s end, Bullman said March is usually training month. Officials bring in their firefighters and get them ready to respond.

“You just don’t turn a switch on, you’ve got to do stuff to get ready,” Bullman said.

Wildfire season, which usually lasts until the middle of the summer, is generally typified by a lot of dry, cured grass — something there seems to be a lot of lately in the Borough, Bullman and Brodigan said.

Bullman said anyone who wants to burn after today will have to get a permit. The system is scaled down from previous years. Folks have to have a permit in hand, but the division isn’t signing off on them anymore. Permits can be found at the forestry office in Palmer, at local fire stations, online or in the newspaper, Bullman said.

“All they have to do is abide by the conditions on the permit and they have to call in the day before they burn just to find out if it’s a burn day or not,” Bullman said.

So long as people burn safely and the fire doesn’t get away, property owners are good to go, Bullman said. But if a fire does get out of hand, the first thing Forestry is going to ask to see is a person’s permit. And if the person doesn’t have one in hand, he or she will be liable.

As for advice for people who need to torch a pile of brush or twigs, Bullman said the best advice he can give is for folks to try their hardest to avoid burning in the wind.

“The windy day thing is what really gets people,” Bullman said. He urged folks to check weather forecasts and consider burning in the morning or evening, when wind isn’t as common.

Forestry and the Borough will get together May 3 for their yearly wildfire exercise, in which they light a field on fire, then put it out, Brodigan said.

“We may not need the practice by then if things keep going the way they’re going,” he said.

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