A wildfire is burning in a remote area of northwest Alaska. The Alaska Fire Service reports that the Zane Hills Fire was discovered this week, and mapped at 1,900 acres. AFS spokeswoman Beth Ipsen said the fire, burning in a snow free area of tundra in the Selawik National Wildlife Refuge, was spotted by AFS staff flying to the village of Norvik for training.
“They saw smoke, flew over it, kinda sized it up a little bit, which was creeping,” Ipsen said. “It wasn’t doing too much. And they made note that it was an area that was surrounded by snow.”
Ipsen said the fire is suspected to be human caused, as snow machine tracks were spotted in the surrounding area. Although the fire is not threatening anything, and expected to burn itself out, Ipsen said it provides warning that fire season is beginning. She said that’s true even around Fairbanks, where despite above normal snow, spring is revealing fire prone vegetation.
”Almost like it freeze-dried in some places, so that’s exposed right now is really dry,” Ipsen said.
Ipsen said spring is a challenging time for wildfire mangers are they are still bringing together resources. She said smoke jumpers area available to do initial attack on fires that spring up.
Dan Bross is a reporter at KUAC in Fairbanks.
