Although the Division of Forestry’s fire danger level is only at moderate, Tim Mowry said yesterday’s Anchor Point Fire demonstrated the amount of fuel available.
Mowry: “Things can burn and will burn, this fire started in grass and spread into hard woods, it was catching fire in birch trees and spruce trees and it’s early for that but that’s a sign that things are dry and ready to burn so people really need to be careful.”
Each day the Kenai Peninsula doesn’t get precipitation increases the fire danger according to Mowry, and forestry has already had quite a few responses to wildland fires.
Mowry: “We’ve had a lot of unpermitted burn piles that have escaped and we’ve had to respond to, people do need a burn permit if they’re going to do any debris burning between April 1 and August 31 and we’ve had several of these grass fires that we’ve responded to that the property owners did not have a burn permit so we would encourage everyone that if you’re going to do any burning to get a burn permit and follow the regulations and guidelines on that permit.”
The Anchor Point fire is out but the hot spots were being monitored by forestry through this afternoon.
Mowry said that fire was the biggest response forestry has issued so far this fire season, as it included helicopters dumping water, planes releasing retardant, and fire engines.