Continued vigilance, fire risk discussed at borough COVID-19 press conference

On Wednesday, the Mat-Su Borough held its weekly press conference on COVID-19.   In addition to borough officials, Dr. Thomas Quimby of Mat-Su Regional Medical Center addressed those present in person and online.  Dr. Quimby is the head of Mat-Su Regiona’s Emergency Medicine Department.  He says while everyone, even doctors, are tired of constantly focusing on COVID-19, that it won’t simply go away.  He adds, however, that the current state of affairs in Alaska is good.

“I think it’s important that we recognize that, right now, we’ve won a great battle in this war with COVID…I think this is one of the best places in the world to be, but that doesn’t mean the war is over. Nothing’s really changed in terms of we don’t have immunity, we don’t have a vaccine, we don’t have a miracle drug.  This really is still a war, and it really is still dependant on us as to how this goes in the future.”

In total, there have been just short of 2,000 COVID-19 tests administered in the Mat-Su Borough with twenty-one confirmed cases.  As state mandates begin to loosen, some borough closures may begin coming to an end as well.  Borough Manager John Moosey says it’s possible some buildings could open by May 18^th, but more details will be forthcoming next week.

Not all news from the press conference was positive, however.  In the midst of the pandemic, emergency responders are still going to work, and Borough Emergency Services Director Ken Barkley says they’ve been busy since May 1^st.

“We’ve responded to six structure fires, four wildland fires, seventeen illegal burns…seven smoke investigations, one power line down, one cooking fire that resulted in injuries, three motor vehicle accidents, and one vehicle fire.  That’s forty-one calls in total, and that’s just in four days.”

As snow cover melts and evaporates, the risk for wildfires increases, especially as most vegetation that had been buried is now dead.  Phil Blydenburgh from the Alaska Division of Forestry says it’s critical that Alaskans abide by the burn permit suspension that went into effect at the beginning of the month.  He says the level of support that came to the state last summer will likely not be available due to COVID-19.

“Last year, we had a tremendous fire season, and we had support form forty-nine states with over five-thousand firefighters coming to Alaska….We’re not going to get that this year.”

Under the burn permit suspension, cooking and warming fires are technically still allowed, though Phil Blydenburgh says they are discouraged.

In the midst of the pandemic, borough business has continued, including work on the annual budget.  The borough assembly will next meet on May 19^th, and the first budget deliberation is scheduled for May 26^th.