The Kenai Peninsula began a burn permit suspension beginning on Monday, May 24th. The burn-suspension will prohibit all burning requiring a permit, both large and small scale. This includes the use of burn barrels and burning of brush piles.
Howie Kent, Fire Management Officer for the Kenai/Kodiak Area of the Alaska Division of Forestry said, “The burn suspension only takes into account small scale and large scale pile burning and burn barrels. Those would be prohibited at this time. Folks can still have a campfire as long as it’s less than three feet in diameter and no taller than two feet tall and has good clearance around the perimeter of your campfire ring. Those are still allowed, but anybody that’s trying to rid debris from their property, at this point, it’s just not, with our burn suspension in place, we’re asking folks to hold off for a little while.”
With low fuel moistures and high temperatures, dry vegetation is susceptible to ignition and fire spread. Kent says it’s unknown how long the suspension will be in place, “Right now, it’s just going to be weather dependent. We’re expecting maybe some cooler temperatures by the end of the week, but we’re not sure how much precipitation we’ll actually get. We’re going to kind of play it by ear for now but it could be as long as a week or it could be a couple of weeks. We’ll see what we’re looking at with the weather.”
The public is asked to check previous areas of burned debris piles for ‘holdovers,’ to ensure no heat remains. Fire can continue to burn underground through duff layers and roots systems for months, only to resurface, and spark a fire.
The Division of Forestry states that the fire danger rating on the northern half of the Kenai Peninsula is listed as ‘very high’ and ‘extreme’. The fire danger rating on the central and southern part of the Kenai Peninsula is labeled as ‘high’ and ‘very high’. The burn suspension is only in effect for the Kenai Peninsula and is not including Kodiak Island.