The Anchorage Fire Department says wind likely whipped up a smoldering illegal campfire near a popular urban trail Friday, sending an ember into nearby black spruce and igniting the trees downhill from homes in the Rogers Park neighborhood.
Several people called 911 around 9:15 p.m. Friday to say the woods off Chester Creek Trail had caught fire. Roughly 40 fire personnel, a dozen police officers and a helicopter with the Division of Forestry responded before the flames were brought under control, according to John See, AFD spokesman.
On Tuesday, blackened, mossy ground and charred trees marked about quarter of an acre north of Bannister Drive and east of the trail's access point off Juneau Street. A garbage can and camp chair sat nearby. Plastic bags, crushed beer cans, water bottles, empty cracker bags and a liquor bottle littered the ground around a shallow dirt pit -- about 10 feet from the edge of the swath of charred ground. That fire pit is what See believes sparked the larger fire.
When firefighters and police responded to the fire Friday, they also found two abandoned tents near the pit, See said. It is unclear if those sleeping in the tents were homeless. They never returned, at least when law enforcement officers were there, according to the Anchorage Police Department. No citations have been issued in the case, according to the fire and police departments.
See emphasized that people should remain vigilant for illegal outdoor burning near their homes and, if they see a fire, report it to the fire department. Despite cloudy weather and some rain Tuesday, a burn ban remained in effect for the Municipality of Anchorage, meaning people could use only covered barbecue grills and fish smokers.
While Anchorage is under a burn ban, all outdoor fires are suspended in the municipality's parks, See said. When the burn ban is lifted, people can use only established barbecue grills or fire pits in the parks, he said.
"If you see a fire burning and there's burning restrictions on and you're concerned about it, call 911. We'll send an engine out and check on it," he said.
On Monday, fire crews searched the burned area off the Chester Creek Trail but did not find any hot spots, See said. Temperatures soared into the 80s that day, breaking the previous record temperature for the date.
"It's exceptionally dry; we've gotten to the point where smoking materials discarded and embers can start these fires," See said.
Iris Matthews, president of the Rogers Park Community Council, said she received several calls and text messages from neighbors about the Chester Creek fire while she was out of town Friday. But, she said, it did not surprise her that a fire had started at an illegal campsite.
"There's a lot of concern about the camps in the greenbelt -- they're proliferating," she said. "We're hoping that this will be the impetus to start a conversation about it."
Matthews described herself as a regular trail user and said she sees fires at illegal campsites fairly frequently, often in the fall. Over the years, she said, she has called AFD multiple times to report the flames.
"You have to decide how big is too big," she said. "I've seen campfires that look more like bonfires, and that's been the most concerning. That's what catches your eye -- when you can see the flames shooting out and you're 10 to 20 feet away on the trail."
In 2008, a fire at a homeless camp got out of control and tore through 10 acres of the Campbell Creek greenbelt. In December, AFD responded to a fire at a homeless camp in the Chester Creek greenbelt after propane explosions set the camp and surrounding trees ablaze.
The campsite near Friday's fire was not visible from the trail. See said the escaped ember likely smoldered for a few hours before it spread to trees.
The fire department does not actively seek out illegal campsites to check for campfires, AFD fire investigator Brian Balega said.
"I would love to, if we had, like, 10 more of me to do that," he said. "We could dedicate a company that owned like a brush rig to do nothing but that in our high-danger areas. That would be excellent, because then we can stay in front of these things and maybe catch them before they get big."
Lt. Garry Gilliam, head of APD's Community Action Policing team, said camping in Anchorage parks is illegal without a permit from Anchorage Parks and Recreation.
In 2011, APD started to crack down on illegal campsites, under a law that gave the campers 15 days to clear out or as little as three days to move if the city stored the campers' property for them.
Gilliam estimated that illegal campers numbered between 200 and 400 then, and that the number has shrunk to several dozen now. He referred to these people as the "hardcore illegal campers." Some of them, he said, travel on a circuit. They move between sites along the Anchorage greenbelts -- from the area of the Chester Creek Trail, near 20th Avenue and Lake Otis Parkway, west to Valley of the Moon Park and occasionally to Westchester Lagoon, Gilliam said.
"Mainly because you have access to main thoroughfare where panhandling can be done and access to public transport," he said.
Gilliam said APD uses the term "illegal camp" instead of "homeless camp" because "many people we contact actually do have residences."
"They refuse services," he said. "They just want to live the way they want to live."