Dump Fire Raises Wildfire Concerns

Observation: The dump fire spread onto the hill and went farther up. This one lasted longer than usual, more than a day. But this year it spread to the other side of the hill.

LEO says: (2016-06-09) Suppression efforts catch Mountain Village dump fire - by AKFIREPIOS - BLM Alaska Alaska Fire Service crews and water-dropping aircraft suppressed a fire yesterday that escaped from the Mountain Village dump Tuesday night. As many as 26 people have worked on the ground so far including smokejumpers and the Chena Interagency Hotshot Crew. A helicopter and two Fire Boss aircraft dropped water yesterday to help gain control of the fire. The combined efforts were effective as the fire is considered 80 percent contained and holding at about 30 acres today. It is burning to the north of the dump and was flanking toward the village when the suppression efforts stemmed its progress yesterday. Today hand crews continue to strengthen their hold on the fire and are doing mop-up. The fire was burning on a steep hillside in tundra, brush and the notoriously hard to extinguish peat. The area received a reprieve from days of warm and sunny weather when clouds moved over the village today. Yesterday, light smoke was drifting intermittently into the village. Alaska Wildland Fire Information (M. Tcheripanoff)

Resources:

• ADEC Division of Air Quality Advisories/Episodes - Complete Air Quality Advisories/Episodes List (Filterable by Area and Year)

• ADEC, Division of Air Quality: Monitoring and Quality Assurance - Wildfire Smoke/Particulate Information, Particulate Matter - Wildfire smoke is a mixture of gas and tiny bits of matter, called particulate matter. The following description of particulate pollution is from the Environmental Protection Agency website, EPA AIRNOW.