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Photo by Eric Engman

Smokey Bear may say that only you can prevent forest fires, but the Alaska Division of Forestry and Gov. Sarah Palin are taking it one step further by proclaiming this week as Wildland Fire Prevention and Preparedness Week to help raise local awareness on public safety measures.

On Friday, the Alaska Division of Forestry hosted an open house that walked locals through firefighting operations and offered advice on public safety and protecting home property.

The Alaska Division of Forestry is responsible for protecting about 365 million acres of land in the state of Alaska from wildfires.

Naturally occurring wildland fires help in the upkeep of healthy forests and habitats in the ecosystem.

But according to Tom Kurth, fire operations forester, 85 percent of wildfires are caused by humans

There are more than 1,000 human-caused fires a year within the protected area.

“It is incumbent upon us that we do anything we can to prevent these fires from occurring,” Kurth said.

One of the biggest causes of fires this time of year is from burning debris.

“With windy weather conditions and dead grass this time of year, we see more fires caused by debris burning than anything else,” he said.

According to Kurth, springtime is the worst time of year to be burning debris.

The Alaska Division of Forestry recommends that homeowners wait to burn their yard debris in the fall once surrounding grasses have grown in.

Homeowners are free to gather the debris but allowing it to sit for a few months will help keep the burning isolated and prevent unwanted spreading of flames.

So far this season, the fire department has only seen about four human-caused fires. That’s a low number compared to the average.

“We’ve been fortunate this season with good weather,” Kurth said.

Good weather to a fireman doesn’t mean hot sunny days but low wind and relative amounts of moisture in the atmosphere.

The good weather has allowed for firefighters to get ample training and gear up for the drier time of year when fires are more likely to occur.