Cool, rainy weather has kept this year’s fire season fairly quiet. And as the midpoint of this year’s fire season approaches, state and federal firefighting officials anticipate that weather pattern is likely to continue. Which means they’ll probably soon be sending back firefighters and equipment that’ve been on loan from agencies in the Lower 48.
Firefighters call July 10th the annual “conversion date,” when agency officials decide whether to return personnel and equipment that’ve been loaned by firefighting agencies in the Lower 48. And whether to cut back on resources assigned to fires burning in remote areas around Alaska. But because the weather here has turned cool and rainy, the federal Alaska Fire Service has already returned most of those borrowed resources.