Alaska DNR Forestry: Tuesday August 18th, Tok Community Meeting Q&A

Thank you so much. Another thing, we do want to thank the Red Cross for supporting, as well as you guys supporting each other in the community and rallying together. We always see Tok doing that, and it's appreciated. It's seen. We have multiple donation sites around Tok, this one included, and then the Tok School as that evacuation shelter.

We've got a lot of people that came together to support, and we do recognize that you guys did a majority of that workload being the first responders for your guys' community. We will give you guys the opportunity for some questions. To reiterate some of the things, we do have life and property as our primary objectives. We are on day 2 of an active firefight, and so we are in initial attack, and so we do appreciate you guys working with us. And coming together to get more information.

We do have Division of Forestry and Fire Protection people integrated in this community that you guys know personally. We have, just like you guys in the community and those in the community that work for us, have experienced devastating loss. So that's something that's experienced here and for the division. As well as it rings true for the entire state. So we are rallying together for that as well.

We will be able to take questions. I do understand that it is a little hard to hear in the back, so we may have to reiterate some of these questions, okay? But we want to make sure that we get the collective answers for you guys, and then we will be around for some one-on-one questions as well, okay? This is hard with a lot of people in the room here, but any kind of— we'll start over here. Any questions from this side, and we'll just kind of move around.

Yes. When do you think we can expect the power to stay on all day and all night? All right, we've got questions about power.

Hello everybody, my name is James Nelson. I'm the power operations manager for the Interior Division of Alaska Power and Telephone. So for power questions right now, so what we're doing with power right now is trying to mitigate as much as possible any kind of fire danger. The biggest fire danger that we have is the West Feeder, so pretty much from our power plant all the way to Dot Lake. We killed this morning as preventative as the wind came up.

The trees have a lot of pine cones on the top of them that got really heavy in the past 2 weeks, and that's mostly what's leaning over. It's actually ripping these trees out of the ground. It's ripping the roots right out of them. So we killed the power line this morning going out there. Um, line guys right now are patrolling the line.

We're going to have the power back up on the west feeder to as many people as possible probably here in the next half an hour to 45 minutes. That will stay on as long as the wind keeps down. If the wind comes back up, we got to cut it off again, and we might be cutting off other parts of town as too, as wind comes up or things start spring up. One thing about our power grid is it's not built in straight lines. Over the years, how this power grid was built, it actually snakes through a lot of stuff, especially on the north side of town where there's a lot of power.

So even when the power does get restored, a lot of the stuff on the north side, we're keeping sectioned off because there's downed power lines. We've had dozers go through the power lines, they're on the ground and stuff like that. I have 6 inbound linemen coming up right now from Southeast Alaska. They're coming up from Skagway, they're coming up from Haines, they're coming up from Prince of Wales. We have Golden Valley Electric, um, who's on standby also to come.

There's not a lot we can do yet until the fire is out of town and out of our power grid. Then we can start to go in, um, linemen at night when the fire is coming down. We're going out, we're doing assessments, we're making lists. We have material already on the way from Anchorage for transformers, main lines, secondaries. We're also trying to get some meter bases here to try to help people get stuff back up.

So we're going to have to take an inventory of the houses that were lost and places that we don't have to go to and places that are in the fire-affected area that we need to get temporary power to. We realize it's also coming up on winter. We're going to try to get this stuff done as fast as possible, and we can have more hands here by early next week, but there's not going to be a lot of power going on to the north side of town until all this calms down and the wind calms down. So that's kind of the update that I got. We're going to try to keep it up as much as possible.

We know people want sprinklers on and all that other stuff. We just ask for some patience. We're trying to just start not any new fires is our biggest thing right now. So as the wind comes up, more power is going to go off. As the wind goes down, more power is going to come on.

So Thank you, James.

All right, um, we will get more opportunities. Does anyone over here have one other question before we move to this side? All right, anyone over here? We got one in the middle. Yes, give me one sec.

I'm just curious if you guys are doing anything proactive More trees falling on the power lines. Proactivity on power lines.

We always try to do that. We have budgeted amounts for line clearing and stuff like that. So for a lot of people that don't realize that we're a federally regulated utility, we have certain rules that we have to follow federally. Part of those rules is staying within our allotted right-of-ways. The only way that we can get away from that is if we have permission from the actual landowners on those right-of-ways in order to open up those right-of-ways.

90% Of the time no one gives us that because everybody likes their trees and they like their, you know, their privacy. So as much as possible, we try to get these things open. This year and last year we've been a) short on linemen. Carded linemen in the state is like trying to find diamonds. It's a very hard thing to do, it's a very specialized thing to do, and nobody wants to come to Tok to live here at 70 below zero working on lines.

We've had lineman positions open for 3 years now that we haven't been able to fill just because it's such a specialized thing. So the crews that we do have We're contracting in the winter. Like, we actually don't even do right-of-way clearing in the summer because it's too much of a fire risk. So the equipment running through there and mulching stuff up, they hit rocks, they hit sparks, off goes the fire. So we try to do this stuff in the fall and spring as much as possible.

And then we have targeted stuff for the larger trees that we can see that are sort of leaning towards the line and stuff like that. We try to do this as much as possible. This year is another weird year, like I said, with the pine cones. It just kind of hit us out of nowhere about 2-3 weeks ago. We just started noticing all the trees started leaning over, and then as soon as we got wind, it was over with.

There was nothing we could do. Um, there's trees that are 50-60 feet outside of our right-of-way that are falling into the lines that we have no permission to cut or anything like that. The only way that we can do it is if it's imminently coming into our line, and then we can legally cut it without without the state's permission or anybody's permission really, if it's an imminent danger. If it's not imminent danger and it's outside of a right-of-way, we are not allowed to touch it. So it's an unfortunate rule that we have to follow, but it's still a rule that we have to follow.

So, all right, any more questions from the middle? Yes, sir. Why don't we have an alarm system? An alarm system? Yeah.

In regards to evacuations? No, not just for evacuation. I talked to 5 different people today. They didn't even know there was a fire in this town until 1 o'clock. 1 O'clock!

There should be an alarm system when there's an emergency that tells the people we have something wrong to be aware to it. There isn't any. Tony Conrad put one out. And it's not used. All it is, it takes is one button, push it, and it tells everybody there's something wrong in this town and it should be taken care of.

Because there's a lot of people—. I worked pretty much till 1 o'clock last night getting people out of their houses. You know, that's just, that's just not fair to the people who live here. All the people that lost all of their houses. I lost mine last year.

But the thing of it is, we don't have a system in this town that tells the people there's an emergency. And if that was there, everybody would have been evacuated very much easier, and there would have been a lot more less houses burned down. Can I— I can respond. George, I think this is our town's indicator that we need both a committee for disaster relief and the system to communicate communicate with each other. So it sucks that this is what happened to do it, but I think this is the notification that we have to do it.

That is—. Not everybody's on a telephone, not everybody's on a computer, but that, that phone, that little tower that's down there at the fire department, all it takes is one button. Okay, then let's do it. Let's do it. Let's solve it.

Let's solve it. So let's all put our heads together and solve it. But we can't change what's happened. No, we can change the future. So we are the future of this town.

We're going to rebuild it. We're going to do it together. Okay, so let's lift each other up in this time and let's not point fingers. I appreciate— I appreciate what you're saying. Appreciate you saying—.

But that's what we need to do. So all ideas are good ideas. Let's get them together. Let's get them down and let's take action. Okay.

That's what we're here to do, try to help out to fix problems. Another opportunity that you have right now, we're in the process of working through what is called a Community Wildfire Protection Plan. You've probably seen some of the notices up and around. We've had a few meetings here in this building about that also, but in that document and how we work through that is going through the community with your input on places where we can put in fire breaks, how we can work with the power company to give them right-of-way to go ahead and clear some of those trees, how we can work on notification systems, how we work on evacuations. We've spelled all that out in a community plan.

The one that we have here for Tok right now is outdated. We're in the process of refinishing that. And we've actually taken it a step farther. The one we're doing right now is for the entire Tok response area for our Division of Forestry and Fire Protection. So another opportunity you have right now.

There'll be more meetings coming up and opportunities to work through that. Tannenau Chiefs is the lead on pulling that project together, and we're trying to get that done. Where is she? Wick? Here she is.

I'm the statewide community wild card project coordinator. Get up there, Emily. You gotta get up there.

Hey guys, I'm Emily Yorkstorf. I'm the State of Alaska Division of Forestry Community Wildfire Protection Plan Project Coordinator. Say that 5 times fast. Yeah, so like Rob was just saying, we are in the midst of creating a Community Wildfire Protection Plan, which I often refer to as a CWPP. This is exactly what we need to hear.

What are areas of concern that the community has that we need to make sure is put input into these plans. First word, community. I can't write these plans, can't— my chiefs can't write these plans, we can't write the plans without community input. We write these plans for the community so the community takes action and then comply for future funding to implement what has been identified. It's pertinent that we hear from you, it's pertinent that you're a part of our conversations and at our public meeting.

I do have my business card that I'm happy to hand out. Otherwise, I'll be in the back. Anyone is welcome to come and talk to me. An emergency evacuation plan sounds like it is something that needs to be in this community wildfire protection plan so that you guys can seek funding to make sure that comes to Fortitude. Thank you.

And Emily is one of our fire public information officers as well, but she will be here for questions. Thanks, Emily. Thank you.

Any other, uh, questions for the collective before we go to one-on-ones? Yes, sir. I've been in this community nearly 40 years, and I realized yesterday that we have a lot of people that have had a lot of loss, but most of us don't know. And a lot of people want to help, a lot of organizations want to help, but we didn't have a mechanism in place to find out who lost what or what they need. So I generated a a Google Sheet this morning, sent out to a number of people.

Uh, Jeremy was in that, and a lot of people in this room are in that. But in order to help, we need to know who it is that lost something, what they need for help. And if anybody's in the room wants to be— needs to be added on this, right now we have 27 people that lost their home. I've heard of numbers high as 47, but I don't know if that's accurate. So once we have an accurate list of who it is, we can ask them what they need and want And if you are a community leader or just want to be involved in that decision-making, maybe we can meet for a few minutes after and we can add you to that list so you can add data or help in some way.

That's—. Woo, it's back on. Um, that's a great point, and so this community collective, right, getting resources, um, getting it into a clearinghouse of what's available, who needs it, who needs what. Um, I know a lot of community members have done that on their own. We've also had businesses kind of collect information, different entities taking donations, and that is one of the things that we struggle with, of who that point person in the community is.

We tried to do that as well for you guys, but you guys know you better than, than we ever will, and so it's definitely coming down to how can we support you to do that, and that Google Sheet is perfect. We do We did receive that and we can help with that. And then especially these centers for collection here, we can take that information. The Red Cross can take that information at those collection sites. I know a lot of you have been leaving messages for family members when they come in and check in, so that's something that we could probably at least record some of that stuff to put in that central clearinghouse for who needs what.

Because there's a lot of support coming. There's support coming from Anchorage, from Copper River, and they're all coming to support you. We just need to know the best way how to do that. Great. Any other questions?

Thank you. Yes. I have two questions. One is, what can a person expect if the fire retards against their property? Does it ruin everything?

And my other question is, when can folks Do you guys go back to the fire zones to secure any remaining property?

First one, um, this is fun, this goes back and forth. That first one on the fire retardant, the biggest problem with the fire retardant is it does stain things if it does get on it, but it is a natural fertilizer. That's why we can use it out in the woods. It helps things grow eventually. Our intention is probably not to be using it in town.

We've had good luck with the helicopters. We're working on making sure that we maintain that footprint in here with folks on the ground. And one of the things that doesn't really mix really well is retardant and people working on the ground. When that comes out of the airplane, if people are there, they have to clear the line, they have to get out of the way, and the aircraft come in and drop, then they can come back in and work. We'd rather just keep people in there working with the helicopters, we just have to step aside and we work right underneath them.

The second question on when you can get back into your homes, we're working on that. We are still chasing fire line, trying to get some line contained where we've got it held and we feel that we're comfortable with it. You'll see we're going to shrink the box down a little bit today. I'm going to get with Emergency Management, we'll kind of bring the box down a little bit. We will have some places that'll phase out into either a set or already.

So you'll start seeing some different colors coming onto the map too as we look at also for potential for coming up. We do know that today is hopefully the last day of this wind, this push, but we have lightning predicted for the next 2 days perhapsly, and then by Monday, uh, Sunday, uh, the wind to shift around and come out of the north, which is our other normal weather pattern here, which would push this back towards us. So we're working as hard as we can to get everything buttoned up while the wind is pushing away from town. So I can't give you like a time and date yet, but just know that we're working on getting people back into their homes as quickly as possible. I have a question for you.

What you just said. Sure. Just some clarification. If the wind does flip around, you know, from the north, whatever you said, so then the fire switches, so then it'll start going towards the south, right? Yes.

So there's a possibility. So, so our good— yeah, our concern right now—. I mean, there's a lot of us that live on the south side, so we're trying to—. Yeah, and we are—. We're— that is our primary mission right now is keep fire north of the island.

Um, so I think what we're thinking at right now and what, what Kayla and I talked about before we came in here and looking at how much progress we've had in our line that comes across here and the dozer line we have in, the people we have working, we're feeling pretty confident that we're holding on to that right now, given the weather for the next couple of days, not having a push on that. My biggest concern right now is that this continues to spread out this way, then we get a wind push and it comes back down into this side. So you'll see some evacuation notices coming up for this area in our Ready, Set, Go format, but that's what we're trying to get out here with the dozers and get to the river as quickly as we can.

Be prepared for that? That's what I was just asking. You should be prepared. Uh, it— you saw, you saw how fast this went, and we had people here right away. We had aviation on it.

We were working it hard, um, and it just kept pushing us away. And, you know, it's— it— black spruce loves to burn, and when it has some wind and it's been hot and dry like it has been for this long, it, it gets up and moves. So you're putting in a dozer line from Sundog on around that fire perimeter trying to contain that. Correct. We're hopping off of here and we're coming off of here.

This is being held up by the 90 burn, right? Um, so it's not coming back here as hard, so we're not as worried about that.

Yeah, Kato, you wanna Evening. Uh, Kato, I'm a fire management officer for Token Delta. Um, we started last night. Everybody knows origin point was down here on the highway. Uh, just so you understand what was going on, uh, the power glitched there for a little bit, like the computer one, and both Ted and I at the prevention Dinoco Head News and Fire Department, said that was a power line, we need to get outside.

And as soon as we got outside, as soon as we got outside, we got told that there was a fire on there. By the time we made it from our station to here, it was already 25 acres, and I was already evacuating people on Sundog. So we knew the wind was not going to help us. So the plan we started with was working off of Red Fox all the way back to the highway. That got completed last night and it's held all day today.

There's, uh, you're gonna see smokes in there. There's a lot of potholes and smokes, but stuff we don't feel is in danger of reigniting and starting a fire going. Also last night we made it about halfway to, um, yeah, Midnight Sun, and we got held up. And today we made it all the way to Midnight Sun and they're approximately They're coming around the corner over by Third right now with the dozers. So, uh, and we're trying to figure out how to get around that corner because a lot of private property in there and the road gets narrow.

So we're trying to see if we can widen the road. And as soon as I leave here, I'm going over there to talk to them. But the goal is to get around that corner. We also started the day with 2 dozers, and this line's a little bit off. There's that cluster of homes right there.

The line's over here on this side, the fire edge. Uh, goes this way. We started our dozer line coming up this way going there, and that's where they were dumping the retardant earlier today. But the goal is to hook it back so it doesn't come back around in a couple days on us. But right now they're holding it.

We, uh, got every water resource and pumpkin we have out there and ordering more. So there's probably 100 miles of hose line out there. Um, but, uh, unfortunately there was someone here we could not. But so, uh, yeah, they did a good job last night. Nobody got hurt.

That was a big thing for us. Um, and for the firefighters, for the TOC staff lost their homes in there too. So it's, it's affecting everybody. And the guys are— if you see them, just tell them thanks. Good job.

Appreciate it. Uh, any other questions?

Okay, thank you. Uh, one thing that has been mentioned is a Ready, Set, and Go. We do have information along that, um, line of pamphlets. The state was able to get with all the emergency managers in the State Emergency Operations Center to collectively agree on Ready, Set, and Go statewide, so that way no matter where you are in the state, we're using the same colors, the same language, and the same garbage. And so, um, that's a big win for us.

Over the past years, depending on where you traveled, things were different. So we are working on collectively making sure we're using the same language, same colors, same stuff, no matter where you go. So more information is available on that. Um, and then if you have questions, please let us know on that Ready, Set, and Go, especially as they said we are going to be switching different areas to different colors. Okay, any last questions?

We will still be here for one-on-ones as well. Yes. Thank you. So as far as the Ready, Set, Go, I don't know, like I've talked to other people, but I have never gotten a different emergency notification on this fire except for Moosehorn Horn to McKenzie is go, and everything east of that is set. And so, we're supposed to be in an emergency evacuation area, I should have already gotten a go, and I never have.

My husband never has, nobody, I mean, like, I don't know if anybody else has, but I have never. So, if we're planning on using that, we need to make sure that the notification —100%, and that's one of the things that we're working on. There's a couple of different ways that we do that, through the phone system, through the internet, and through actually driving around and making people know. The reason you've only seen one is that we're still in initial attack. We threw out a pretty big box, and we've been trying to work to get through it.

I've been trying to get with our folks today to kind of build out the rest of what it looks like, and we've just been busy trying to take care of what we have going here.

First off, I apologize for the limitations on our technology. There are two parts to that message that are really important to pay attention to. The shape of the area that we're trying to identify, we call that the polygon, the square, the area, that's an important identifier. But also the text. And that's unfortunately our technology doesn't allow us to apply an area that says this is go at an area that is only set.

This is a federal program that allows for communication over wireless devices. It's technically not necessary to be used under an evacuation process, so we're trying to just make it work right now best we can. So when we do issue the additional messages tonight, there'll be more information information in the text about which areas will be under the ready, the set, and the go. I hope that answers your question.

Okay. In addition to, um, that emergency alert that comes across your phones, um, against your will, but that is super helpful when we do have visitors, uh, family, friends, And then those of you that are just localized here, the Division of Forestry and Fire Protection has also started a SMART 911, and that's an elective sign-up for notifications to support the State Emergency Operations Center with evacuations. And that's an elective sign-up versus theirs as a location blast. We do offer that for the Tok area, and we We were able to push that out. We also send information about burn suspensions and red flag warnings over that too, so we'll have more information on that.

We are trying to get more and more abilities to hit you guys with information as fast as we possibly can, with our initial attack happening just as fast to us as it is to you. And we understand that the technology has its limitations. And we are trying multiple forms. It's the fastest way to get more evolving information out. And then door-to-door, like they said, and us getting out here to talk to you guys face-to-face, bouncing between evacuation shelters, talking to you guys on the road, talking to the road guards so they have the same information.

Okay, we, um, we'll have updates throughout the community every day. We disseminated those today. And I've talked to a lot of you that have been through town. So our method is what we call high-tech and low-tech, and I know we all need a mix of all of it, but, um, and it does take the whole community. I know you guys have your own internal communication, phone trees, family, how to reach out to them.

So we're here to support. Please let us know how we can do that. Any other questions before we go to one-on-ones? Yes, sir. Okay, if Tulch is under an attack by pine cones, where do they come from all of a sudden?

What can we do about it? How can we push back?

That's going to be, honestly, that CWPP and that mitigation. Can't say the pine cones exactly, but mitigating risks such as the trees that collect the pine cones that come down on the power lines. Those are going to be something that we have to come together as the community to identify what the risks are. We're learning a lot from this fire and unfortunately last year, but it really is going to take that proactive approach with the CWPP as a supplement to be able to identify where the problem areas areas are, what funding we can get, how we can help you, and what we can focus on.

All right, Emily, you want to wrap us up? We have a couple more questions. Hold on, we'll have Emily speak and then we'll still do questions.

We do have multiple crews. We've got crews from the state, we've got crews from the feds, we are ordering crews in. Our population is pretty small. We do have EFF crews through the state, we do have crews out of the villages, we have CATG here, um, we've got our crews out of, um, Sheevac. We've got— there used to be over 100 crews in state.

There is a lot of restrictions when it comes to crews, mainly because we have had a lot of experiences with potential health issues, so they have gone to contractors. That is a federal thing. We are a state agency. There's not a whole lot I can speak on that side of the— on that side of it, but identifying that we do have crews and we can order crews crews in, and that's how the system works, that when we need help, we order more people in. You want to speak more to that?

Yes. I don't have a question, I have a comment. Yeah. I've been here for 30-some years and been involved with the fire department all the time I've been here. We have an interagency agreement between Code 43 and the volunteers, and I've not heard anybody thank them tonight, and they've worked hard since the They're in the moment it started, and they're all just volunteers.

They're not on y'all's payroll. So I really think that they should get some recognition tonight as well. And that's my apologies. I do blanket statement cooperators, volunteers, paid, unpaid community members, Red Cross, those of you that have just pitched in not only with money but your time. Supplies, food, showing up here, talking to your neighbors.

We had a vet clinic in here that was helping out, um, and so I do want to recognize that first and foremost. But, um, that community effort is noticed, and, um, we do appreciate you guys rallying together to come support.

Two things real quick. I know we want to wrap this up because there is still an opportunity to go vote. So that we know that we've got that going on if you haven't yet. But that time's ticking away, so we're going to wrap this up. Two things though.

One, about the crews. One of the things that we have done— my boss's boss's boss just mentioned to us, reminded me that one of the things that we have done too, we've got money from legislation to be able to start working on building our native crews back up again also. We've had a really successful opportunity with that out in the Southwest, and two of those crews are here on this fire now. We've had them up north as we had sent other stuff to the south. And then lastly too, just as we get ready to re-enter, we'll have some information also spread out to folks as we get that re-entry process on things to look for, hazards to pay attention to.

And just know that every single little smoke that you see in your yard as you come back in doesn't mean you need to call us to come put it out. We've been there, we've taken care of it. If we've let you back in, we think it's pretty safe. We'll still be patrolling the area, being around But that will be some information that will also come out. Thank you so much.

All right, so we will stick around for one-on-ones. I was asked to promote our Toke community event. There's the Alaska Health Fair that's going to be here at the Mushers Hall on Thursday, August 20th, 9 to noon. There's flyers over on the side as well. We know that we are going to make an impact on your community, but we do want to support.

We want to make sure that you guys can have all the programs that you have, um, to be able to support the community, including the health fair, but having us support with the fire efforts as well. I think real quick, as a community, we need to show our gratitude that there have been no casualties. Yes.

So it was close. Okay, thanks guys. They were overfed with all of the ice cones.

I think we need to make sure that we express our gratitude while we are still concerned. Thank you so much for all you guys have done. Yes, thank you guys. There's a—. And we will be around.

And we will have more opportunities for a meeting. There's a printed map over here if you guys want to see it up close. Thank you so much.