Spring Is On The Way! Tis The Season For Wildfire by LoLo Paige

Spring Is On The Way! Tis The Season For Wildfire 

By LoLo Paige

LoLo is a contemporary and romantic suspense author. To read the first few chapters of Alaska Spark, click HERE or visit LoLo's Webpage to sign up for her newsletter. 

It's almost time for "break-up" in Alaska, the herald of spring up in these parts. That means a couple of things.

First, we gain daylight up here in mass quantities each day, all the way to Summer Solstice in June. Alaskans celebrate Summer Solstice with enthusiasm because after our long, dark winter, all-night sunlight is our much-anticipated reward! Extended daylight wakes up dormant trees and bushes, spurring new growth in our spruce, birch, and willow. (I still marvel at the miracle that ANY plant up here can survive the ruthless winter temperatures. I sincerely believe it is one of the Wonders of the World).

Second, we warm up, which is another delight. And third…well, the warmth also brings in our wildfire season. We have two susceptible periods of fire season up here: Pre-green-up, the time between break-up, where ice breaks up on our lakes and rivers, and when trees and bushes pop buds and leaf out. It’s super dry during this time, creating low fuel moisture for wildfires.

The second susceptible period for fire is in May and June, when the sun does its thing of never dipping below the horizon line. Temperatures can rise in Southcentral Alaska in Anchorage to the high 80s, and in the Interior near Fairbanks, in the 90s. This shocked me the most when I fought fires in the Interior. How can it get so hot in Alaska, of all places? One summer I worked loading fire equipment into airplanes in Fort Yukon in 97 degree heat.

Our state land mass of 663,268 square miles equates to a ton of action with lightning-caused wildfires, as it does around the Lower Forty-eight western states. Last summer, smoke was so dense in Anchorage from all the fires, that we had severe health advisories, and no one could open their windows. We had several weeks of a rare, 90-degrees. A historic moment: Alaskans overran Costco and Home Depot, desperate for fans to stay cool. Such a rare event they reported it on Channel 2 News!

Growing up in western Montana, wildfire was just as common. I began as a seasonal firefighter with the U.S. Forest Service and fought fires in Montana, Idaho, and California. I later transferred up to Alaska and worked for the U.S. Bureau of Land Management, Alaska Fire Service, fighting fire in Alaska’s Interior.

When fires happen you are dispatched with your fire crew when requests are made for resources. Most fires are small and require less staff, but in recent years with the hotter, drier summers, fires have quickly grown to massive proportions, as we’ve seen in California, Washington, Montana and other states in the arid West.

Part of our fire training was to work with public outreach to educate homeowners on the urban-rural fire interface, where neighborhoods border wildlands. We made sure homeowners understood the importance of defensible space around their homes.

If you live in an area that is susceptible to wildfires, or bush fires, as Australians call them, it’s a good idea to create “defensible space” around your home. That is, remove all trees and other vegetation within a parameter at least 30 feet or greater, if possible, from your house. And never, ever store your firewood next to your home. You can Google videos of what happens when a wildfire comes through and the firewood stack ignites.

When fires reach trees and crown from tree to tree, rooftops can ignite if trees are too close. The National Fire Protection Association has specific actions to take to prepare homes for protection against wildfires:

https://www.nfpa.org/Public-Education/Fire-causes-and-risks/Wildfire/Preparing-homes-for-wildfire

In my first book, Alaska Spark, I write what happens when these things aren’t done and where inaction can lead. And because it's fiction, of course I raised the stakes high for homeowners and firefighters. The story is a romantic suspense/action adventure about the dynamic of people working together in a stressful environment and the friendships and love relationships that form…and complicate things. I love writing about the grit and determination required to be a firefighter.

Much of my novel is inspired by true events. My husband and I were both firefighters in Montana, so I had lots to draw on for the romance *smiley face.*

Despite the back-breaking work and sometimes being terrified on the fireline, I loved my time as a wildland firefighter. It was something I never dreamed was possible or I thought I could do. But growing up in the Rocky Mountains with the romantic notion of working in the great outdoors was something I couldn’t resist.

When I fought fire, I was fortunate to have good leadership and crew bosses who knew fire behavior and always kept safety a priority. I enjoyed the give and take between everyone on a crew, regardless of gender. I worked on a crew where everyone respected each other’s boundaries.

As a female, it was a constant challenge to prove I could do the physical aspects of a job traditionally done by males. Sometimes I worked with old-school thinkers who thought women had no place on a fire line. I worked hard to prove myself to them. Most came around, but there was always that one holdout. I write about this in the novel. Now it’s commonplace for women to work on fire crews. An all-woman fire crew from Montana came to Alaska last summer to fight fires.

As our Alaska fire season progresses, I cross my fingers that homeowners and firefighters will be okay, and no more homes will be lost.

When I watch the evening news and see lines of firefighters in yellow Nomex shirts, shouldering heavy packs and gripping their Pulaskis, I’ll pray they’ll be okay, no matter where they are fighting fire.

They will forever be my heroes.

 For a behind-the-scenes experience on what it’s like to be a wildland firefighter, read Alaska Spark, available on Amazon

Alaska Inferno, the second book in the Blazing Hearts Wildfire Series, is now available for Pre-order

ARE YOU FIRE READY? 🔥🔥🔥