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| Rebecca Luczycki |
| Wildland firefighters practice their technique outside of Soldotna. |
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I went down to Soldotna about 10 days ago to set up and help man the Alaska magazine and Milepost booth at the Kenai Peninsula Sport, Rec and Trade Show. As I was leaving Soldotna to drive back to Anchorage on Saturday afternoon, I saw a group of people spread out across the side of a hill just off the highway. Even from several hundred yards away, I knew immediately who they were and what they were doing; in their bright-yellow shirts and hardhats they were instantly recognizable as wildland firefighters.
Thankfully, the firefighters were carrying out a training exercise and there was no wildfire threat that day. But I knew it would not be long before those men and women were called out to help subdue the numerous wildfires that burn across the Kenai Peninsula each summer.
Alaska’s fire season officially kicked off last weekend, as temperatures hit 60 degrees in the Interior for the first time this year. The Fairbanks Daily News-Miner reported that the Division of Forestry and local fire departments responded to six wildfires on Saturday.
The Alaska Interagency Coordination Center Fire Weather has predicted this summer to be on the warm side (great news after the miserably damp and cool summer we experienced in Southcentral in 2010) with normal rainfall levels, which should help keep wildfires in check. But even with a good amount of rainfall, we know that lightning strikes, unattended campfires and wayward sparks can all set off devastating blazes in the woods. And the huge number of beetle-killed spruce trees on the Kenai Peninsula and drought in the Upper Yukon and Yukon Flats could make it a banner fire year despite the weather.
Last year, 1.2 million acres of Alaska burned in wildfires. In 2009, it was 2.9 million acres.
I’m hoping the wildland firefighters I saw in training are very bored this summer. But I am glad they are preparing for action, just in case.
—Rebecca Luczycki is senior editor of Alaska magazine.