Alaska House urges local and state agencies to prepare for a bad wildfire season
Rep. Ky Holland, I-Anchorage, speaks to the Alaska House of Representatives on Friday, April 25, 2025. (Photo by James Brooks/Alaska Beacon)
Alaska's wildfire season is shaping up to be especially dangerous this year, and the Alaska House of Representatives is asking local, state and federal officials to prepare ahead of time.
On April 25, the House voted 37-0 to approve a resolution calling for readiness.
House Joint Resolution 15, by Rep. Ky Holland, I-Anchorage, is slated for a hearing on Friday in the Senate Resources Committee.
'House Joint Resolution 15 came about from an early awareness this winter about the very dry conditions that we were witnessing in Southcentral Alaska,' said Holland, speaking to the House.
'A really key part of this resolution is a recognition of how important it is that we do the outreach and we encourage the preparation by residents to be able to be more aware of what they can do to protect their own homes through the Firewise program,' he said.
He added that it's particularly important for Alaskans to be aware that many of the state's residential areas have a single way in and out.
'That single route is all that's going to be available for both our fire response apparatus to get in, as well as for anyone who's trying to evacuate to get out,' he said. 'And we only have to look back at some very tragic, large fires we've seen in the last five years that have been exacerbated by these problems of the limited ingress and egress routes to realize how important it is for us to assess those areas.'
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