State suspends fireworks, tightens burning rules across Southcentral and Interior

The State of Alaska is tightening restrictions on fires and fireworks in advance of the Independence Day weekend.

Thursday evening, the Alaska Fire Marshal’s Office announced that use of fireworks is being suspended across much of Southcentral and the Interior, including the Mat-Su Borough.  According to borough code, fireworks are already illegal except for on New Year’s Eve.  The new restriction is at the state level, making using fireworks a violation of both borough code and state law.

In addition, the Alaska Division of Forestry and Fire Prevention tightened existing restrictions on burning.  There was already a suspension of burn permits in place in the Mat-Su, but cooking and warming fires were still allowed.  The new restriction means that any cooking or warming fire must be in a container, such as a steel fire ring or charcoal grill.

These new restrictions come after the state moved to Fire Preparedness Level 5 on Thursday.  That is the highest level of fire preparedness the state has, and it indicates that many of the available firefighting resources are currently deployed on existing fires.

According to the State Fire Marshal’s Office, there were more than 150 fires burning across the state as of earlier this week.