A mobile home fire in West Anchorage Sunday afternoon was controlled in under half an hour, but was the sixth fire in the city in the last 48 hours during a stretch of high fire danger.
This many fires in one weekend is notable, said assistant Anchorage Fire Chief Alex Boyd.
Dry, windy and warm conditions have put Southcentral Alaska on edge recently, including the issuance of burn bans and a red flag warning at the end of the week.
The fire Sunday was in the 2900 block of Barbara Street in the Turnagain neighborhood. There were no injuries but fire spread to nearby grass and trees, Boyd said.. Power lines hanging nearby meant Chugach Electric had to turn off power in the area. The call for the fire came in around 4 p.m. and it was under control by 4:25 p.m., Boyd said.
[Anchorage Hillside stares down a long-running wildfire threat]
While it’s not clear what caused the Sunday fire, Boyd cautioned people to be careful while using barbecues or smokers right now. Three fires in the past 10 days or so have been related to uncontrolled or improperly discarding smoking and cooking materials, he said. Even throwing those materials into the dirt can smolder and ignite nearby organic material.