Refuge Notebook

Article
June 4, 2004

Fire season calls for vigilance, cooperation

by Jeffrey R. Richardson

Wildfire is one of those events-like hurricanes and tornadoes-that many people don't think about until the season is imminent or already well underway and trouble is at the doorstep. Given life's tribulations, this is understandable. And, it explains why we've devised programs and services to help inform and prepare people for natural disasters, to help mitigate the hazards.

Kenai Peninsula, cooperating local, state and federal agencies have pitched in for the last several years to address a growing wildfire danger on public and private lands. The Kenai National Wildlife Refuge Fire Management Program has proudly served this effort with a number of projects. They include the Funny River Road firebreak and other mechanical fuel reduction activities, as well as public education, campground patrols and prescribed fire to reduce fuel loads and improve wildlife habitat.

We salute out colleagues in other agencies for parallel efforts to cope with the huge fuel loads caused by the spruce bark beetle infestation. The Alaska Division of Forestry heads up a comprehensive prevention and public education program. The agency for many seasons has fielded a fire suppression crew, trained and ready to respond to wildfires when needed, but also dedicated to fuel reduction projects throughout the region. The Kenai Peninsula Borough has been integral to this work, providing funding and coordination with various landowners. Others, including Homer Electric Association, have done their part with public education and clearing rights-of-way along borough roads.

Members of the public have an important role to play in this process of prevention and hazard mitigation, not only for the common good, but also for their own self-interest. This is especially true where neighborhoods are surrounded by forest.   Reducing fuels around dwellings, landscaping with fire-resistant trees and shrubs, insuring that wood piles, oil and propane tanks and other flammable materials are stored away from the house, utilizing metal roofing-all are important for making homes and neighborhoods more fire-safe in woodland areas.

These fire-wide steps don't guarantee that your home will be spared by a wildfire disaster, but they greatly increase the chances of a good outcome.  Many people don't realize that firefighters, when confronted with a large wildfire moving rapidly through or towards a neighborhood have to employ the same triage techniques as emergency room doctors faced with a large number of trauma victims all at once, as in the event of a crash or battlefield casualties.  Like doctors, firefighters have to ask: With the resources I have at hand, in the time I have, how many homes can I save?"

Like the doctors, firefighters use objective criteria to produce the best answer possible without being overcome by the inevitable emotion of such a situation. So, as they deploy crews, engines, helicopters, they evaluate the homes in a neighborhood against the fire behavior and decide which homes have a reasonable chance of being saved and which may have to be sacrificed. And this evaluation is based directly on whether any given home is likely to be part of the overall solution, or part of the problem. Has the likelihood of ignition in the area immediately around the home been sufficiently reduced that firefighters can expect to save it without incurring an unreasonable risk to life and limb?

This selection process is not part of the job any firefighter enjoys.  We all like to think: "Bring it on!" and have the confidence, the training, the equipment, the "right stuff" to carry the day.   But, we live in a world of practical limitations: weather, time, energy, equipment and money can all run in short supply on any wildfire.

Programs like the Kenai National Wildlife Refuge Fire Management Program collaborate closely with our agency partners in order to improve our odds, to stretch the dollars.   We welcome the cooperation of an informed public to give us that much greater chance of success.

Jeff Richardson is in his fourth season as a wildland firefighter and has just completed several assignments for the KNWR Fire Management Program.   Previous Refuge Notebook articles can be viewed on the Refuge website at http://kenai.fws.gov/.  You can check on new bird arrivals or report your bird sighting on the Kenai National Wildlife Refuge Birding Hotline (907) 262-2300.