Rampart is set to become a busy hub in the coming days as additional firefighting resources – including a Type 3 Incident Management Team and multiple crews – mobilize in response to the Lush Fire (#199), burning across the Yukon River. The fire was first detected around 7:30 p.m. Wednesday during a BLM Alaska Fire Service detection flight and quickly grew from 15 to an estimated 200 acres within two hours. Burning through decadent black spruce, the fire exhibited extreme behavior, including running and crowning.
A small Type 3 Incident Management Team – composed primarily of BLM AFS personnel – will coordinate efforts to protect the community and nearby Alaska Native allotments from the large wildfire.
Twelve smokejumpers who arrived Wednesday night are already working with the community to identify and assess nearby values at risk, including seven Native allotments and a structure located on the north side of the river.
Due to the fire’s intensity and rapid growth Wednesday night, smokejumpers and fire managers determined it was unsafe to engage directly. A helicopter flight is planned today to gain a better understanding of the fire’s size and activity. Fire behavior is expected to remain extreme due to continued hot and dry weather.
Meanwhile, the BLM AFS Midnight Sun Hotshots are being shuttled by helicopter from the Bridge Fire near Mile 52 of the Steese Highway – where they just completed suppression work on a 27-acre fire – to Livengood, where they will fly to Rampart. The North Star Fire Crew, BLM AFS’s Type 2 training crew, is also heading to the Lush Fire for their first assignment of the season.
This fire comes during an already high-activity period statewide. On Wednesday alone, 24 new fires were reported following widespread thunderstorms and persistent hot, dry conditions. As of 1:30 p.m. Thursday, 183 wildfires have burned approximately 16,200 acres across Alaska – a statistic that is expected to rise significantly with little relief in the forecast over the coming days. Plus, fire managers are concerned about holdover fires from lightning strikes that smolder in the duff or ground layers for days before flaring up and igniting when conditions become warmer, drier, and windier. Smokejumpers in Rampart reported lightning in the area again Thursday morning, signaling the potential for another round of new fire starts as Alaska enters the peak of fire season.
Firefighters are now seeing fires burn deeper into the ground as the duff layer – the partially decomposed organic matter, primarily moss, lichen and leaf litter, on the forest floor – continues to dry. As these deeper layers dry, extinguishing wildfires becomes significantly more difficult.
For more information, contact BLM AFS Public Affairs Specialist Beth Ipsen at (907) 356-5510 or eipsen@blm.gov.
-BLM-
Bureau of Land Management, Alaska Fire Service, P.O. Box 35005 1541 Gaffney Road, Fort Wainwright, Ak 99703
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The Bureau of Land Management Alaska Fire Service (AFS) located at Fort Wainwright, Alaska, provides wildland fire suppression services for over 240 million acres of Department of the Interior and Native Corporation Lands in Alaska. In addition, AFS has other statewide responsibilities that include: interpretation of fire management policy; oversight of the BLM Alaska Aviation program; fuels management projects; and operating and maintaining advanced communication and computer systems such as the Alaska Lightning Detection System. AFS also maintains a National Incident Support Cache. The Alaska Fire Service provides wildland fire suppression services for America’s “Last Frontier” on an interagency basis with the State of Alaska Department of Natural Resources, USDA Forest Service, National Park Service, Bureau of Indian Affairs, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, and the U.S. Military in Alaska.
Categories: Active Wildland Fire, AK Fire Info, BLM Alaska Fire Service
Alaska Wildland Fire Information 