By Andrew Wellner
Anchorage Daily News (Alaska)
Copyright 2006 Anchorage Daily News
All Rights Reserved
SHEEP CREEK, Alaska — Fire destroyed a house Sunday on Hidden Hills Road, killing three dogs, leaving a family of five homeless and prompting neighbors to ask, “Where were the fire trucks?”
David Tanner said nobody was home at Bill and Kris Wichser’s place near Sheep Creek when the fire started shortly after 4 p.m. Someone driving by spotted the fire and knocked on Tanner’s door to alert his wife.
Kris Wichser said she, her husband and her children had been in Anchorage that afternoon buying books. Tanner’s wife called the Wichsers as they drove home; the Wichsers called 911 from the road.
“We got hold of the fire department; they wouldn’t come. Nine-one-one wouldn’t help us,” Tanner said. “Nobody would help. Why can’t we get help out here when we need it?”
The problem, said Dennis Brodigan, director of emergency services for the Matanuska-Susitna Borough, is that no fire service area is established between Willow and Talkeetna.
“It is a finite geopolitical boundary that pays for those services, and thus those are the only ones that receive the services,” Brodigan said. “It’s entirely a taxpayer issue.”
Brodigan said this is probably the third fire in that area since the year began. But borough hands are tied. Borough emergency medical technicians and rescue crews will respond to calls outside fire service areas. But in the event of a house fire, if no human lives are in danger firefighters can’t respond, Brodigan said.
“It’s unfortunate. We certainly would like to see a fire service area voted in up there,” Brodigan said.
“We were never told it was a no-fire zone,” Kris Wichser said.
Seven years ago their home in Wisconsin caught fire. She said she never would have bought this house if she’d known it was not protected.
“It’s just been terrible,” she said. “It could have been stopped if they would have gotten out here.”
She said she and her husband, along with their three children, ages 3, 8 and 10, moved to Alaska 3½ months ago. Now they’re not sure what they’re going to do.
“We don’t know where to go because we’re new here,” she said.
Tanner said he put the family up for the night in his one-bedroom home. He and his wife watched the children for the afternoon as the parents started putting things in order, shutting off utilities, talking to the insurance company.
Wichser said there’s nothing left of her home and the small business she ran out of it. Her children’s toys lay melted on the front lawn.
The fire has left Tanner worried about what might happen if his house burned down and wondering why the subdivision nearby, which has seen growth in recent years, isn’t covered.
When a fire starts outside a fire service area, the next step, generally, is to see if the state Division of Forestry will respond. Tanner said he called the Division of Forestry and got the same response as he had from the borough.
“Division of Forestry is not a structure-protecting agency. Our job is protecting natural resources,” said Lynn Wilcock, the division chief of fire and aviation. “We would not normally respond to any fire even during the fire season unless it was posing a threat” to a surrounding forest.
Brodigan said multiple attempts have been made to set up a fire department in Caswell Lakes but every one failed to receive a majority of votes.
In addition to voting to create a department, citizens also must vote in a property tax to pay for it. It’s a long process, Brodigan said.
At a recent event in Willow, he said he got multiple inquiries from residents of Caswell Lakes looking to set up a fire service area. He gave them information on how to get the ball rolling.
“I hope they follow through with it,” Brodigan said.