Fire activity across Alaska has picked up this week, and response from the U.S. Wildland Fire Service has been both aggressive and effective. Several new wildfires ignited in Western Alaska since Sunday, some of which prompted immediate action from smokejumpers and aircraft. These fires included those posing direct threats to nearby villages and others threatening Native allotments and cabins.
Fire managers say this early success is due not only to quick, coordinated response, but also to current fuel conditions. Many of the new fires are burning in surface fuels — tundra, moss, grass, leaf litter, and timber — rather than deeply into the duff layer. Because the fires are not burning more than a few inches into the ground, firefighters have been able to contain and suppress them more efficiently. Water, whether dropped from aircraft or sprayed by firefighters using hoses, has been highly effective on many fires.
“Not much is happening in the deeper areas because they’re still frozen, probably because we had a cool and damp spring.
~Heidi Strader, the Alaska Interagency Coordination Center meteorologist
We didn’t have 80-degree weather until (summer) solstice. We’re a few weeks behind as far as dryness of deeper ground layers.”
Building on its successful aggressive response to these wildfires, the USWFS has so far quickly checked fire activity and allowed firefighters to contain many fires within a few days. This efficiency has enabled firefighters to demobilize and return to the lineup for new starts. That’s especially important as hot, dry conditions are expected to bring additional ignitions across northern Alaska this week from both new lightning strikes and lightning holdovers. Holdovers are fires that smolder unnoticed after a lightning strike and emerge later when conditions dry out.
As of 1 p.m. today, nine of the 10 new fires that have started in the past two days have ignited in the USWFS protection area. Most of them were due to lightning in Western Alaska and mostly north of the Yukon River. This pattern of heavy lightning is now moving farther inland where conditions have been hot and dry recently.
Here’s a rundown of the fires currently staffed that ignited this week within the USWFS protection area, which spans 191.5 million acres — an area larger than Texas — across northern Alaska.
Oblaron Fire (#370), located on the outskirts of Selawik, was halted at 21 acres and within about 100 yards of a solar array and not far from a tank farm – critical power infrastructure for the remote northwestern community. The four remaining smokejumpers will do a grid search for any remaining heat on the tundra fire and demobilize Friday.
Notakok Fire (#367), located a mile outside Kaltag. The USWFS North Star Fire Crew and seven smokejumpers continue to mop up remaining hot spots on this 55-acre fire that ignited after a lightning strike on Sunday.
Horseshoe Fire (#390), located 11 miles east of Huslia and just east of Willow Lake, has two Native allotments within a mile of its eastern flank. Smokejumpers circling overhead before their fire jump Wednesday night reported the fire was burning in spruce with pockets of hardwood. It exhibited isolated torching and was spreading eastward. The Alaska Division of Forestry & Fire Protection’s Gannett Glacier Crew, along with two of the nine smokejumpers who initially responded Wednesday night, will continue mopping up remaining hot spots. The fire was estimated at 24 acres.
Bishop Fire (#391), located 25 miles north of Galena, was initially estimated at 15 acres and burning in tundra and mixed hardwoods. While it was not immediately threatening any sites of value, it is approximately 4 miles south of a Native allotment. The fire is within the Koyuk National Wildlife Refuge in an area that receives an initial suppression response. Twelve smokejumpers, supported by a helicopter making water drops Wednesday night, reported that a bit of rain and higher overnight humidity helped moderate fire activity. They said they made good progress on the fire.
Blueberry Fire (#386) is located in the middle of the Seward Peninsula, 44 miles south of Deering. Eight smokejumpers and four single-engine water scoopers responded Wednesday night to this tundra fire, which grew to 200–300 acres. Water scoopers dropped on about half of the fire before being reassigned to the Horseshoe Fire. Smokejumpers reported that a favorable wind shift and higher overnight humidity significantly moderated fire activity, allowing them to use beaters to smother flames and make good progress around the fire. Today, they’ll focus on extinguishing remaining hot spots along the edges.
Contact Public Affairs Specialist Beth Ipsen at Elizabeth_ipsen@ios.doi.gov or (907)356-5510 for more information.
-USWFS-
U.S. Wildland Fire Service, P.O. Box 35005 1541 Gaffney Road, Fort Wainwright, Ak 99703
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Categories: Active Wildland Fire, US Wildland Fire Service
Alaska Wildland Fire Information 