Wildfire prevention and older adults

Wildland fire danger is growing across Alaska. A warm and dry winter has put fire officials on high alert and prompted residents in zones where wildland meets urban development to take precautions.

"The wilderness surrounding us presents a significant fire risk," said Anchorage Mayor Suzanne LaFrance at a recent town hall about fire prevention efforts across the Municipality. "Our beautiful green spaces, while cherished, also mean that the risk of fire is ever present, even in our urban core. We are facing heightened fire danger this summer." Recent wildfires, such as in Lahaina and Los Angeles and even in New Jersey, have also prompted Alaskans to wonder what they can do to prepare. For Alaska's seniors and caregivers, the risks associated with natural disasters are multiple. Older adults and caregivers must plan possible evacuation scenarios and think through how a natural disaster could disrupt their regular health care and community ties.

"There are many lessons learned from these disasters and more come out all the time, said Amanda Loach, director of the Municipality's Office of Emergency Management.

At a recent community town hall in Anchorage, about 200 people gathered to hear about these efforts and to learn how a community council is taking actions to address the danger. Many of those in the audience are older adults themselves eager to hear what they should do to prepare.

Where humans and wildland intersect

As it turns out, a lot of us live in what fire experts and geologists call the Wildland-Urban Interface, or WUI. Those are areas where humans and their homes, businesses and infrastructure abut fire-prone wildland or vegetation, according to the U.S. Fire Administration. https://www.usfa.fema.gov/wui/what-is-the-wui/

One 2022 study found that this wildland-urban interface covered less than half a percent of the total area of the state but almost three out of four housing units were in this zone. In Anchorage, about 82% of housing is in this area.

Norman McDonald, deputy director of the Alaska Division of Forestry and Fire Prevention, said fire prevention and firefighting is complex and getting more challenging. Multiple agencies interact for wildfire protection, such as the Bureau of Land Management, the National Park Service, U.S. Forest Service and the military.

"You look across the world and there are fires in Australia and Europe and conditions like we've never seen before," McDonald said at the town hall. "It's a complex problem. It's very real. It's changing. And it's not getting better." That's why it's important to build resilient and prepared communities, in addition to developing safe and effective fire response.

The division is tasked with protecting 154 million acres in Alaska and cooperates with the Anchorage Fire Department. AFD supports state efforts in fighting any wildfire that breaks out within the Municipality.

Catching up after years of inaction

The Anchorage Fire Department used to have a wildland fire division, but funding for it ended in 2009. With it, the Municipality also had a community wildfire protection plan; it was last updated in 2008. City leaders realized planning and prevention efforts had become stale.

"The threat of a major wildfire in the Municipality is very real, and we've had some close calls in recent years," said AFD Chief Doug Schrage. "The intensity and the growth of a fire depends on three factors - fuel, weather and topography-and we have all three problems here in the Municipality."

With that in mind, the fire department went to congressional leaders. U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski responded by securing $4 million in federal funding to restart the wildland fire division. The department is also applying for other grant money to fund projects to reduce fire risk.

As part of the rebuilding effort, the Municipality of Anchorage, more than 1,900 square miles that stretches from Eklutna to Girdwood, hired Jon Glover as wildland fire division chief. Glover grew up in Anchorage and has worked on hotshot crews and fire management for more than 20 years. He's spent time trying to catch Anchorage up on wildland prevention efforts.

Part of the wildland division's efforts will include writing a new community wildfire protection plan. The division has been busy reaching out to community members through media appearances, talks at civic clubs and groups, and the recent town hall. The division is also gathering community input with a survey.

The risks to elderly residents

The Lahaina fire in 2023 showed the vulnerability of elderly populations. More than two-thirds of Maui's fire victims were over the age of 60, according to reporting by Honolulu Civil Beat, a nonprofit newsroom. The elderly population of the state is about 22%. Seven residents of an assisted living facility on Maui were killed when the fire swept the complex.

A similar pattern occurred in Los Angeles when fires broke out in January. Many of the dead were elderly and in some cases also disabled. One neurologist recently described searching for her patients-many of them with Parkinson's disease or dementia-in the aftermath of the fire. And in many cases, the elderly lose the homes they've lived in for decades, the resources they depend on, and the communities that are familiar to them. The Altadena Senior Center in Los Angeles burned in the Eaton fire there in January. It had 27,000 visits last year alone, KCAL-TV in Los Angeles reported.

As a potentially vulnerable group to natural disasters, licensed facilities such as assisted living centers are required to submit emergency plans to the state and do quarterly disaster drills with older residents and the employees taking care of them, according to Alaska law.

However, the law is less clear for seniors living in independent housing.

What is clear is that wildfire prevention and planning starts with us. The AFD and other communities offer an inspection of your property to see if it is firewise, meaning firewood, trees and grass are cut back and managed. But we have to follow through and see to it that our neighbors do the same.

"The Anchorage emergency management community is always working together with partners to strengthen community disaster resilience," Loach, the director of emergency management, said. "As part of recent preparations for both wildfire and the potential for an ashfall incident we worked with the public and multiple local, state, private industry, and federal agencies to update and share important preparedness messaging, plans, operational procedures, and methods of warning."

A couple examples these partnerships: The Anchorage Health Department works with each senior activity center in the Municipality to maintain emergency plans. Salvation Army of Alaska and other Alaska voluntary organizations have disaster experts the city works with in planning and response to share communitywide connections and resources every day and in the event of emergencies.  

Neighbor watching out for neighbor

In some communities, only one road goes in and out of the neighborhood. The Basher Community Council, representing a neighborhood adjacent to Far North Bicentennial Park, has a subcommittee specifically focused on resilience. It has created a community-specific emergency plan, a phone tree providing residents the contact information for nearby neighbors, a newsletter about emergency preparedness, and is helping other community councils develop resilience subcommittees.

Time to build on momentum

As Alaska experienced one of its driest winters, fire officials across the state were holding their breath that this fire season could be worse than the record-breaking 2004 summer. Then, April showers brought down the risk of fire danger in the Municipality, said Aviva Braun, National Weather Service Warning Coordinator Meteorologist in Anchorage. While many signs indicate warming trends are ongoing, she is predicting a more normal fire season in Alaska in 2025.

Those better conditions could be fleeting. Preparing for wildfires takes resources, and Anchorage is just beginning to rebuild its efforts. The federal funds secured by Sen. Murkowski for the AFD run out in 2027, and prospects for additional federal funding are unclear.

Anchorage Assembly member Zac Johnson urged residents to stay engaged.

"Continue to advocate. We have so much momentum right now and we are doing so much more than we've done in the last 15 or 20 years," he said at the town hall. "But we need to make sure that we don't lose sight of that. We might get lucky with the weather for a couple of years. We might start to get complacent. We just can't let that happen."