FAIRBANKS, AK - The Bureau of Land Management’s Central Yukon Field Office today issued a Fire Prevention Order temporarily prohibiting open fires (except at established campgrounds), fireworks, exploding targets and explosives on the public lands it manages in central Alaska. The order, which goes into effect tonight at midnight and lasts until fire conditions improve, follows similar BLM fire restrictions for east-central Alaska.
Established BLM campgrounds where the Central Yukon Field Office is still allowing open fires in fire rings include 60 Mile, Arctic Circle, Marion Creek, and Galbraith Lake campgrounds along the Dalton Highway. The Fire Prevention Order does not prohibit the use of camp stoves, gas barbeques or grills, or charcoal briquette fires in fire-proof pans on BLM-managed public lands.
The recent hot and dry weather in Interior Alaska has resulted in extreme fire conditions. More than 1 million acres have already burned in Alaska this summer. The National Weather Service has issued a fire behavior advisory warning of widespread large fire growth in eastern Interior Alaska. In addition, the Alaska Division of Forestry has restricted all campfires on state, private and municipal lands in many parts of the state.
Please consider your safety and the safety of others: do your part to prevent human-caused fires. Wildland fire managers ask visitors and residents to follow the fire prohibitions and to exercise extreme caution with any kind of activity that could spark a wildfire. We all have a hand in a safe fire season.
Information on statewide wildfires and BLM’s temporary fire restrictions may be found at akfireinfo.com.
Source: U.S. Department of the Interior, Bureau of Land Management
