It is already deep into fire season, but if you’re worried about defending your home, help can be in your own backyard.
Residents can have AFD assess their property for free.
The Anchorage Fire Department is coming out to homes and assessing them as part of the Firewise Home Assessment program.
“I spent my entire career fighting wildfires,” said AFD forester John See. “And I've watched hundreds of homes burn. Very needlessly in a lot of cases, when people can do some of these simple things.”
See pointed out several fire hazards when he looked over Hillside resident Christopher Chronister’s home.
“We wanted our house to be safer in the event of a fire and get rid of some problem trees,” Chronister said.
Chronister said he was surprised to find out how many of his trees were overridden with beetles. Beetle Killed trees can be a fire hazard as they dry up. Other hazards included leaves in his gutters and dry branches and grass around his house that could act as kindle in a wildfire.