There were 9 new wildfires reported in Alaska on Wednesday, including 6 on a machine gun training range on Ft. Wainwright in Fairbanks. The range fires each burned well less than an acre before being put out by military personnel. Alaska Fire Service spokeswoman Beth Ipsen said the Army works with the agency to minimize wildfire risk.
“There’s a pretty strict process and protocol military members have to go through to conduct the training, so we’re pretty well aware of what’s going on,” Ipsen said. “And there’s actually weekly meetings between the military and military-zone Alaska Fire Service personnel. And there’s also people on site in case there is a fire. They can jump on it quickly and put it out. Just like what they did yesterday.”
Two of the other new wildfires reported in the state yesterday were on St. Lawrence Island in the Bering Sea. The Alaska Interagency Coordination Center report says a one hundred acre blaze was started along a trail by an all terrain vehicle muffler. Residents of the island village of Savoogna put out the fire. The other fire, a less than one acre blaze, was also human caused.
Dan Bross is a reporter at KUAC in Fairbanks.
