Fact of the Matter

Recently a lot of folks back home have questioned the existence of fire in Alaska. Well, I guess I'm just going to set the record straight once and for all. According to Alaska Fire Service, a division of the US Forest Service, over the past five years up to 7,500,000 acres have burned in Alaska each year. That would be about the same as all of North Carolina west of Morganton going up in flames. A lot of land if you think about it. The average daily temperature for Fairbanks in July is 73 degrees, only 10 degrees cooler than Asheville's average daily July temperature (83 degrees). The interior of Alaska is extremely dry and can become very hot in the summer (record high for Fairbanks is 99 degrees). The region also has an abundance of lightening strikes and is blessed with 24 hour sunshine. So, Alaska can go from freezer to inferno without much problem. Crazy I know.

My crew will oversee over 320,000,000 acres of potential burn land. That's an area equivalent to the entire South: from Cape Hatteras west to the Mississippi, and south from the Mason-Dixon down to the Gulf. If the season is light up here we'll in all likelihood be sent down south to fight fire in the western states.

Anyway, I hope this answers any lingering questions out there.