VIDEO: In 2024, the McDonald Fire burned through more than 172,000 acres in the Tanana Flats Training Area south of Fairbanks. One year later, scientists have revisited that area discovering that wildfire mitigation practices alone may not prevent the spread of flames to homes or other infrastructure.
The McDonald Fire initially broke out on June 8, last year and spread quickly. Suppression efforts were limited however as the area is used for maneuver training, including drop zones and for live fire training. But, there were also demonstration plots being used to study fuel break methods. Those studies were part of a collaboration between the Army, Alaska Fire Service, University of Alaska Fairbanks and Northern Arizona University. โWe wanted to track what vegetation response was after different standard fuel break treatments,โ said Dan Rees, a natural resource manager at Ft. Wainwright.
The observations took place under the intensity of a modern black spruce forest fire to see how the conditions can be related to firewise principles around homes and military infrastructure and how people can be prepared for wildfire. โWe had four of those treatments out there, and they all burned,โ Rees said. Those four treatments included a simple tree removal, the removal of trees and the forest floor, hand thinning with burn piles and tearing up the forest floor with a mulching machine. In viewing the area, Rees observed that โintensity from the fire was reduced depending upon how much vegetation was moved.โ
Under these circumstances, the fuel break with the forest floor removed had the least intense burn but the first still moved through the break, he said. โItโs really important for wildland firefighters to be able to be there and work from these things or else this fuel breaks themselves are not going to protect your home,โ Rees said. Rees added that the aftermath of the fire helped show the weakness of a very common fire break. He said the need for firefighters to work from fire breaks, rather than relying on them, is the biggest takeaway.
