Personnel with various Alaskan wildfire suppression agencies are heading to the drought-stricken southeastern U.S. to help battle blazes.
Public Information Officer Tim Mowry with the Alaska Division of Forestry says this is typically the off-season for the U.S. and other western Lower 48 states have already sent their available resources.
Mowry: “Right now we’re sending down people from different agencies that are available, we always try to do what we can if areas in the Lower 48 need help. We ask a lot of the Lower 48 during Alaska fire seasons, especially busy seasons.”
As of Monday morning there were 38 active fires in Alabama, Georgia, Kentucky, Mississippi, North Carolina, and Tennessee.
Approximately 15 Alaskans from the Division of Forestry, BLM Alaska Fire Service, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, and U.S. Forest Service have been sent so far.
Mowry: “It’s more overhead positions, it’s not crews per say. You know, division supervisors, security guards, heavy equipment bosses, dispatchers, that kind of thing.”
Two of the personnel sent to the Lower 48 are from the Kenai Peninsula: one from the Kenai National Wildlife Refuge was sent down as a security guard and another from the Kenai/Kodiak area’s Division of Forestry was sent down as a heavy equipment boss.
Mowry says he expects the number of Alaskans sent south to go up if the Southern Geographic Area does not get any notable precipitation soon.