VIDEO: While assisting with wildfire suppression efforts in Interior Alaska, a fire crew had one of its vehicles vandalized, rendering the vehicle inoperable and – the crew said – placing firefighters in danger. J3 Contracting, a private wildfire crew from Oregon, was hired by the Alaska Division of Forestry to assist with fires in the Interior.
While the team initially drove up through Canada to respond to fires in Tok, they were reassigned to fires near Fairbanks in early July. As they were assisting with fire suppression efforts for the Himalaya Road Fire, one of the crew’s trucks was vandalized while at Olnes Pond, where the crew was camped. Damage was caused to the undercarriage of the truck where “a bunch of different wires” were cut, explained Ryan Mathwich, the owner of J3 Contracting.
“A lot of those wires led to… critical components on the truck, including the transmission harness, ABS lines, some AC and battery, and there were about 10 different areas on the truck that were cut,” he said, including brake lines. “We’re fortunate that the truck wouldn’t start, so our crew couldn’t get on the road with the cut brake lines,” he continued. “It could have ended badly.”
Mathwich – who believes the attack on the vehicle was done with malicious intent – said the vandalism happened sometime between midnight and 6 a.m. Saturday. While the customized Ram 5500 can be repaired, he said, the services will take time and are expected to be costly. According to Mathwich, the company is spending $8,000 just to get the truck back to Oregon.
