The Alaska Multi-Agency Coordination Group is elevating the state from Preparedness Level 4 to Preparedness Level 5 as of Thursday morning. The preparedness level moving up to five is assigned when large fires that require incident management teams are occurring in several areas simultaneously and is considered the highest level identified in the Alaska Preparedness Plan. PL5 status means that most of the initial and extended attack resources are committed to new and existing fires, according to the Alaska Wildland Fire Information.
Howie Kent with the Division of Forestry also reminds residents and visitors that the Kenai Peninsula is still under a burn suspension:
“We are still under a burn suspension, which includes debris burning, which would include debris burn piles and burn barrels and those kinds of things. Those haven’t been allowed since the beginning of May just due to our conditions being so dry for so long here. I don’t think we’ve gotten more than a quarter inch of rain in the last two months. It’s been really, really, really limited on our precipitation.”
Kent also provides some tips for this holiday weekend:
“Fireworks are not legal here on the Kenai Peninsula. We tend to get a few of those fireworks caused fires, especially when the conditions are dry, like we’ve seen now. Secondly, campfires are still allowed at this point in time. They are talking about possibly doing a statewide burn closure, which would include campfires, but right now, that’s not happening. Campfires are still allowed. What we’re probably is the huge influx of all the established campgrounds being filled up and a lot of people pouring over into the unimproved camping sites; we’ve got a lot of those out there too. Those are the ones we’re most concerned about because they’re right against the wildland areas and there’s not a lot of campfire rings or things like that. If people have a campfire, they just need to know that they’re responsible for it until it’s completely out and they need to be in attendance, keep it less than three feet in diameter, and they have to have good adequate clearance.”
Fire activity continues to increase across the state. According to the Alaska Interagency Coordination Center, over 300 wildland fires have burned in the state on more than 1.5 million acres.
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