Firefighters were burning piles of spruce branches all over the Anchorage Hillside this May. Each stack needs to be 6-feet tall and 6-feet wide, according to Ethan DeBauche, a fuels specialist with the state Division of Forestry and Fire Prevention. โItโs more than throwing a massive amount of sticks on the ground,โ he said. The specific way of piling up the branches helps them burn all the way back down. When it comes to wildfire mitigation, there are specific ways to do pretty much everything. For example, to make sure a prescribed burn is fully out, DeBauche said firefighters stick their bare hands into the remains of a fire.
โIf a firefighter can’t keep their hand in there for around five seconds, it’s too hot to abandon and theyโll keep putting it out,โ he said. This work is part of a huge, ongoing effort to reduce wildlife danger across the municipality. More than 82% of residential areas in Anchorage are forested, which puts the city at risk of wildfires. But itโs been a long time since anyoneโs come in to trim spruce branches and burn underbrush like this. Nearly two decades ago most wildfire planning came to a halt when federal funds dried up, said Doug Schrage, chief of the Anchorage Fire Department. Then last year, the city got more than $4 million from the federal government for wildfire mitigation.
