Alaska's fire season is escalating, primarily in the state's hot and dry interior, where lightning storms are sparking blazes, including one that struck close to riverside cabins.
Read more of this AP copyright story at the link.
You may wonder why I post this. The answer is simple - wildfires in the western U.S. get lots of press. Let's look at the summer of 2004, for example: we remember seeing stories on the national news about a couple of blazes in California that involved some 20,000 acres. Yes, that's a lot.
However, at that same time, we had dozens of VERY large fires, just one of which was over 1,000,000 acres in size. That's over 1,560 square miles ... and you never heard about it.
So now you know. If I don't tell you, who will?
2 comments:
So is it the same up there as it was in the west where fires used to be no big deal until they "controlled" them so much and the forest undergrowth returned? Or do you guys have it different up there?
Since we have so much unpopulated wilderness, the fire teams tend to steer the blazes around villages when they can, and still try to put them out. No uncontrolled burning, if that's what you mean.
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