[Congressional Record Volume 161, Number 103 (Thursday, June 25, 2015)]
[Senate]
[Page S4629]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                            FIRES IN ALASKA

  Ms. MURKOWSKI. Madam President, I want to mention very quickly what 
is on the front page of my newspapers in the State of Alaska this week 
and has been for a couple of weeks now. Our fire season started very 
early and with an intensity that has really attracted concern not only 
within the State but outside the State. Currently, we have about 545 
fires that have begun within the State, both in the interior, where we 
traditionally see them, but also down in Southcentral, fires that have 
taken homes and properties.
  In the first part of the fire season, there was a great deal of 
attention on the community of Willow, an area that hosts the homes of 
many of our famous and our infamous dog mushers, mushers who mush along 
the Iditarod Trail and other parts. The articles have been about the 
dislocation of not only the mushers who have lost their homes but also 
trying to find places for up to 600 sled dogs for temporary relocation.
  So there has been a great deal of concern about the fire status in 
Alaska. As I mentioned, 545 fires have burned, 427,881 acres as of 
yesterday evening. That is a significant total. It is a very 
significant total, but it is pretty small in comparison to where we 
were in 2004 when we saw almost 5 million acres burn. In 2004, 4.7 
million acres burned, and in 2005, we had 2.2 million acres.
  We are hopeful that the weather is going to change and that we will 
get on top of this. But when I was home in Fairbanks in the interior on 
Saturday, on Saturday alone we saw 6,500 lightning strikes at a time 
and a place where it is very dry in the interior and has been for some 
time. So fire danger is very real.
  My point this morning is not to give the weather report but to 
acknowledge publicly the efforts of the men and women who have been 
engaged so bravely and so heroically in fighting these wildland fires, 
fighting these fires all over the State in extreme conditions, in 
difficult conditions where wind can come in at the last minute and 
change the direction of the fires and not only threaten the property 
but the safety of our firefighters.
  Right now, we have about 3,300 fire personnel in the State of Alaska. 
About 2,200 of them are fighting fires on the ground. Over 1,000 of 
these are men and women from Alaska. Many of them are hotshots and are 
firefighters from the villages who have a great deal of expertise, but 
we also rely on many who come from the lower 48 to assist us during 
this time of our wildfires. We thank them and we pray for their safety 
and for those who have been left homeless, whose property has been 
damaged, whose lives have been upended by these very difficult fires. 
Know that our hearts go out to you, and whatever efforts we are able to 
provide for assistance, we stand ready to do so. And a very heartfelt 
thank-you to those who are fighting these fires.

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