The Haines Volunteer Fire Department (HVFD) downgraded its burn ban this week after several weeks of dry, warm weather and a fire that appeared to be started by a cigarette in Chilkat State Park.
As of Tuesday, the fire danger level decreased from “extreme” – the highest of five levels – to “high” (the third highest). Fires in campground rings and burn barrels are now permitted.
Volunteers extinguished two accidental fires last weekend: a stump fire on Beach Road and a fire at Chilkat State Park, HVFD chief Brian Clay said.
According to forecaster Rick Fritch at NOAA in Juneau, the fire risk over the weekend was among the worst he’s seen. In the 16 years Fitch has worked for NOAA, he’s issued only four red flag warnings, three of which were last week, for Haines, Skagway, and Juneau.
NOAA issued its red flag warning at noon on June 1 and removed it at 9 p.m. on June 3. The warnings are communicated to boroughs, whose emergency services then determine what kind of burn ban to put in place. Red flags are triggered by a combination of three factors: high temperature (above 75 F), low humidity (below 25%) and fast winds (above 15 mph), which pick up stray embers from fires and carry them to nearby needles and branches. Winds coming from the northwest are especially dangerous in Haines, since they bring in dry air from the continental air mass over Canada, Fritch said. Wind from the east brings in cooler, moist air from the canal.
In Haines, wind speed frequently reaches 15 mph, but hitting the other two benchmarks is less common. High temperatures in the past week have been especially anomalous, climbing well into the eighties each day on June 1-4. (The average high temperature for Haines is 58.6 F in May and 64 F in June – a full 20 degrees cooler than the high temperature of June 4.) The combination of these three risk factors is rarest of all.
Even at the extreme risk level, however, Clay said he decided to allow people to barbecue on their porches because “people have to live.” HVFD, NOAA, and the US Forest Service all work together to determine which level of ban is appropriate for a given set of conditions.
As for what to expect for the rest of this season, Fritch at NOAA says “it’s a crystal ball question” due to lack of observational data over the Pacific. However, available information suggests that the summer will be warmer than normal, he said. It will also likely have higher than normal precipitation, reducing the chances of more red flag warnings and bans.