Mild Wildfire Season So Far With Alaska The Big Exception

[hatrack]

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Despite statistics showing this fire season is the worst in years, it has been mild so far for most people in the West. Fires in California, Arizona and Nevada have made headlines, but the 1 million acres that have burned in the Lower 48 states is about half the national average this late in the summer.

Alaska, however, is having one of its worst seasons in decades, with 3.5 million acres of remote and unpopulated forest already charred. That is the bulk of the 4.4 million acres of forest that have burned this year, according to the National Interagency Fire Center. But the balance is likely to shift soon, forecasters warn. They say the worst is yet to come for those outside Alaska, especially in the Pacific Northwest.

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Alaska's Interior, by contrast, has been hot and dry. Alaska, with its vast land, limited highways and small population, also changes the way fires are fought. Unless wildfires threaten people or structures, they're usually just allowed to burn, meaning more land will burn than in the more populated West. "If it's a 10,000-acre fire out in the wilderness in Alaska, why would you go out and suppress that fire?" Ochoa said. Currently, Alaska has about 107 fires burning, but only 20 are being fought.

"The cost to get around these fires and do the same thing they do down in the Lower 48 would be just enormous," said Gil Knight, spokesman for the Alaska Fire Service in Fairbanks."

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[LWolf]

1. We're just getting started.

I'm glad it's a slow start; but if you are in an area where fires are burning, it doesn't seem mild!

I've been on firewatch for the last several days, ending yesterday. Helping watch 10 miles from here at the ranch I board my horses at. Thankfully, we didn't have to evacuate, although if the smoke had gotten any thicker we would have had to take all the animals out for health reasons. We crowded together and made room for about 75 animal refugees and their owners/caretakers who evacuated another 10 miles down the road. What a zoo.

[Boreas]

2. Alaska Burns

Nearly four million acres burned and counting.

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