Weekend fires keep responders busy

BIG LAKE — Two major fire calls plus a false alarm and a smaller chimney fire kept the West Lakes Fire Department hopping this weekend.

“I got a little bit,” West Lakes Battalion chief James Keel said when asked if he’d managed to get any sleep over the weekend.

Keel’s boss, West Lakes Chief Bill Gamble, said that he didn’t respond to any of the fires, but he’s been keeping track of the hours his crews are working, and it’s getting tough to keep them to Mat-Su Borough-mandated cap. New work rules were implemented in the wake of a state audit saying anyone who works more than 30 hours, or more, eligible for retirement benefits.

“With this 29.9-hour work restriction we’re going over every week it seems like because we’re just really busy right now,” Gamble said.

The first call of the weekend was at around 9:30 p.m., Saturday. There was a fire inside a chimney on O’Daniel Drive in Meadow Lakes. Actually, first thing was a call to help Willow Fire Department with a call up there, but Keel said crews were put on standby before they could respond.

The chimney fire didn’t take long to put out. Soon after, crews were sent to look for a fire someone reported off of Pittman Road. They didn’t find it.

Then, at 10:42 p.m. came a call to respond to Corky Boulevard off of W. Susitna Parkway on the south shore of Big Lake.

Keel said the homeowners were there when the fire started. They’d been out on the porch barbequing with friends.

“They got done cooking and went inside, and five minutes later realized the porch was on fire,” he said.

They tried and failed to put it out with fire extinguishers and called the fire department. Keel said crews were ready to go because of the day’s earlier calls. They got there quickly, but the fire was faster.

“It probably burned through the structure in 15 minutes,” he said.

Propane tanks got involved and started venting. Then JetSkis and four-wheelers went off as well. It was a big fire — the home was 30 feet by 40 feet and two stories — and crews fought it defensively to keep it from spreading.

“We didn’t get back into quarters until 5:45 a.m.,” Keel said.

He said Corky Drive is narrow and difficult to get trucks up, so firefighters had to lay big supply hose lines from West Susitna Parkway.

“It was kind of an exhausting fire,” he said.

Then, at 2:33 a.m., Sunday crews were back at it, sent to a house fire on Burma Road. Keel said that one was actually outside of the service area so all crews did was make sure no one was inside. Fire crews, by law, can’t respond to fires outside of their service area except to save a life. Officials have said in the past that the rules are to avoid liability if a home inside a service area, whose owner is paying service area taxes, burns when crews are responding outside the area.

Keel said the fire on Corky Boulevard is a good example of why people should be careful when cooking outside.

“Make sure the fire is out before you go back in the house,” he said. “It just takes a little bit of a breeze to get embers out of those fire pits.”

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