CHAPTER 6 



FIRE STATISTICS 



HISTORICAL 



Forest fires have burned in Interior Alaska 

 for many centuries; their causes were the same 

 as for fires over the rest of the North American 

 continent both then and today — lightning and 

 man. The forests themselves tell the history of 

 the earliest fires; early explorers and other trav- 

 elers continue the record until modern times. 



Fires in the earliest times were doubtless 

 caused by both lightning and Indians, with the 

 greater percentage probably caused by the In- 

 dians. The extent of man-caused destruction 

 spiraled upward with the discovery of gold in 

 1898 in the Klondike country. During single bad 

 years, fires burned over several million acres. 

 Railroad and highway construction led to some 

 of the largest fires in the history of the State 

 (Lutz 1959). 



Ever since the gold rush days, an estimated 

 annual average of 1 million acres has burned 

 over in Interior Alaska. Scanning of early reports 

 reveals that some of the worst fire years, prior 

 to the beginning of methodical recordkeeping in 

 1940, were 1898, 1903, 1913, 1915, and 1923. 

 The fact that apparent burned acreage has not 

 been reduced in recent years can be attributed to 

 better reporting and recording procedures. In 

 earlier days many large burns were never seen, 

 or at least never reported; so probably the 

 burned area was much greater than suspected. 

 Even in Sweden, where forests have been man- 

 aged and protected for centuries, the number of 

 fires reported annually increased from 400 to 

 1,100 during the recent 15-year period of 1944 

 to 1958 (Stromdahl 1959). The increased accur- 

 acy in fire reporting in Sweden may explain the 

 apparent decrease of lightning fires from 50 

 percent to 1 percent of the total 



Ideas about the general cause of fires in 

 Interior Alaska have gradually changed. Heintz- 

 leman (1936) stated, "Fires in Alaska are almost 

 wholly man-caused (lightning being a negligible 

 factor) ..." Also, the Alaska Fire Control Serv- 

 ice Annual Report for 1940 stated that there were 

 no lightning-caused fires in Interior Alaska 

 (Robinson 1960). Evidence now on hand shows 



that these statements were in error,- they were 

 made before there was any organized fire pro- 

 tection force or even reporting procedure. Fires 

 that actually were started by lightning were 

 attributed to trappers, miners, and natives. One- 

 fourth of all fires between 1950 and 1958 were 

 reported as lightning-caused, and they accounted 

 for three-fourths of the total acreage burned. 



COMPARATIVE STATISTICS 



The available data on Alaska forest fires 

 from 1950 through 1958 present a vivid picture 

 of the Alaska fire problem, especially when they 

 are compared with data on forest fires in the 

 other States during the same period. 8 Tabulated 

 data are given in the Appendix (tables 34 

 through 43) but the conclusions based on these 

 data are presented in the pages immediately 

 following. The Alaska fire problem can be best 

 visualized and understood by direct comparison 

 of pertinent data about separate but related 

 phases of the problem. 



INTERIOR ALASKA, WITH CONTINENTAL 

 UNITED STATES 



Area Protected 



The Bureau of Land Management is respon- 

 sible for protection of 93 percent of forest land in 

 Alaska. In the other States, responsibility for 

 protection is shared by many agencies and as- 

 sociations. All public domain land in the United 

 States is protected by the Bureau of Land Man- 

 agement; 62 percent of this is in Alaska. This 

 amounts to 27 percent of all land under organ- 

 ized fire protection in the entire United States 

 (fig. 43). 



Area Burned 



Total area of forest land burned annually 

 in Alaska averages about 1.1 million acres, 

 while the total acreage burned annually on lands 



8The information presented in this chapter and in chapter 

 8 is confined to the years 1950 through 1958 since data 

 prior to that year are incomplete and less accurate. Even so, 

 records of the last few years, especially 1957 and 1958, are 

 considerably more reliable than those between 1950 and 

 1956. Tests of statistical significance for several of the tables 

 indicated poor correlation; thus all tables based upon analysis 

 of individual fire reports should be accepted chiefly for the 

 general information they contain. 



49 



