Campfires, cooking fires and warming fires are still allowed, but officials are discouraging their use due to the dry weather and potential for winds to quickly spread the blazes to surrounding grass and brush.
Glen Holt, a state forestry official based in Mat-Su, said the recent spate of warm, dry weather plus predictions for continued warm weather led to the decision to ban most burning.
Spring is always a potentially dangerous time for fires, with the grass yet to green up and homeowners eager to burn the detritus left once the snow melts.
A fire Friday off Knik-Goose Bay Road near Carmel Road south of Wasilla was started from a burn barrel located in dry grass without any fire break around it, Holt said.
The landowner walked away from the barrel for just a minute. But in that short time, winds blew embers out of the barrel and started the blaze, he said. No structures were damaged, but forestry officials cited the landowner for unsafe burning practices, Holt said.
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