Alaska’s June wildfires break records, fueled by hot, dry weather

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple

A record number of acres have burned this month in Alaska, forcing Indigenous people from their homes, compromising air quality and stretching firefighting resources thin.

More than 1 million acres have gone up in flames already, officials reported last weekend, the earliest date on record that the state has reached that milestone. The abnormally warm and dry weather — intensified by human-caused climate change — has helped ignite more than 300 wildfires in recent weeks. More than 100 are still burning, including the East Fork Fire, which has charred over 165,000 acres and now ranks as the state’s fifth-largest tundra fire on record.

The blazes reflect some of the shifts the state is experiencing in the face of climate change, as longer growing seasons thicken tundra vegetation allowing wildfire spread to skyrocket in recent years. More than 2.5 times more acres burned from 2001 to 2020 than in the previous two decades, according to the International Arctic Research Center.

Forecasts predict that more exceptional heat will swell over the state over the next week, which could spark new ignitions.

An air quality advisory now covers large parts of Alaska’s interior due to wildfire smoke. On Wednesday, the smoke pollution in Fairbanks spiked to unhealthy Code Orange and Red levels.

“The air quality could be VERY UNHEALTHY depending on wind flow and drainage through the mountain passes,” the Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation cautioned.

Massive tundra blazes compel residents to flee, stress responders
Many of the fires have started in remote areas. This month, the blaze threatened the 600-person Indigenous Yup’ik village of Saint Mary’s, which lies near the mouth of Yukon River and is only reachable by boat or bush plane. So when it got close to town, officials decided to give vulnerable residents the option to evacuate.

“We called elders,” Dee Dee Ivanoff, the local school district superintendent, said in an interview. “And if they wanted to go, they went.”

Some 180 people, including some with respiratory problems, decided to leave St. Mary’s and a neighboring village, Pitkas Point. Local airlines dispatched planes to the St. Mary’s airport and loaded them up one by one; at one point, Ivanoff said, she counted eight Cessnas on the tarmac.

While some blazes have threatened communities and infrastructure like the East Fork Fire, until recently wildfire managers had enough crew and equipment to respond aggressively.

Wildfire zones in southwest Alaska through June 22. (Bureau of Land Management/Alaska Fire Service)

But as hot, dry conditions persist and lightning strikes start more fires across the state, crews are being stretched, said Norm McDonald, a top state wildfire official.

Two planeloads of firefighters have already flown from the Lower 48 to Alaska, and another is on its way. But managers are also struggling to keep up with fires burning in other areas of the country, including the Southwest, and nationwide, they’re having trouble recruiting wildland firefighters, McDonald said.

“Nationally, we are challenged with the shortage of resources — not just Alaska,” McDonald said. “It’s just a real tough, hard job.”

In St. Mary’s, residents who stayed in town thanked firefighters by delivering them fry bread and homemade meals, said Ivanoff, who has helped coordinate the village’s response.

The lightning-caused fire never broke through the main containment line, and nearly all evacuees have now returned home, she said.

But residents, who depend on fish and wildlife harvests to feed their families, now must contend with the fire’s aftermath: Areas of tundra where they picked berries have burned, Ivanoff said, and some community members are wondering how firefighting retardant dropped from aircraft could affect fish and moose.

Meanwhile, managers have closed Yukon River salmon harvests amid a string of poor fish returns.

Ivanoff said St. Mary’s residents are increasingly talking about the threats posed by global warming — even as they pulled together to get through the wildfire.

“It’s warmer, it’s drier, even the kids are noticing the changes,” he said. “It’s definitely not what it used to be.”

On Thursday, a brush fire started in east Anchorage, prompting road closures.