A team from Alaska is in the Lower 48 to oversee one of the nation's highest-priority wildfires as fire activity intensifies in the West.
Ninety personnel from Alaska are helping local crews contain the Aspen Acres Fire, which has burned at least 96,000 acres in southern Colorado since it started on June 29. It’s destroyed hundreds of homes and forced widespread evacuations across the area.
The assignment is part of the U.S. National Wildfire Response System, which sends fire crews across state lines when fires overwhelm local resources.
Unusual lull in Alaska's fire season frees crews to help Colorado
Sam Harrel, a spokesperson for the Alaska Complex Incident Management Team, said it’s unusual that Alaska has the resources to spare around this time of the year — especially so soon after the solstice. But this fire season has been relatively slow.
“There's plenty of resources left in Alaska to be taking care of Alaskans,” Harrel said. “Fire season is still active, especially across northern Alaska, but there was quite a bit of rain across the southern portion of Alaska that moderated our fire season.”
Harrell said that when the Alaska team deployed earlier this month, the Aspen Acres fire was growing at an extraordinary rate — overwhelming firefighters as it tore across the landscape and through subdivisions. But now they’re gaining ground, and some evacuees are returning home.
“We were here for nearly a week before the weather turned in our favor,” Harrel said. “And we were able to start to take offensive action, as opposed to just chasing this fire.”
With the break in the weather, Harrel said firefighters have been able to construct barriers to protect communities. He said his team is due to return home after they’ve trained up the next incident command group on July 15.
As of Friday, the fire was about 28% contained.
Correction: This story has been updated to correct the spelling of Sam Harrel's name and the percent containment of the Aspen Acres fire.