Anchorage Mayor Suzanne LaFrance has proposed new criminal penalties for people who start unauthorized fires in the municipality, part of what the administration says is an effort to protect the city from high wildfire risk.
The proposed ordinance, introduced at Tuesday’s Anchorage Assembly meeting, would make it a misdemeanor to start unauthorized fires on public or private land during fire season, to start fires on public roads or sidewalks, or to start any fires in violation of a burn ban.
Under the current law, people can only be charged for starting an unauthorized fire if it gets out of control or causes property damage.
The gap in the law puts the city at higher risk for wildfire, administration officials said in a prepared statement Wednesday.
“The Municipality needs meaningful legal tools to deter dangerous fires before they’re started, not just retroactive citations once they’re out of control,” the administration said.
City officials say Anchorage firefighters extinguish outdoor fires on a daily basis.
-People living in tents and other makeshift dwellings use heat sources, including propane stoves and open fires, at camping sites in city greenbelts and empty lots, a situation fire safety officials have warned against as dangerous.
Advocates say unhoused people generally camp in the woods as an option of last resort when no shelter is available, and only a small percentage of people choose to camp even when offered housing, often due to complicated mental health and substance use issues.
Illegal fires, including those at homeless camps, have started deadly and destructive blazes in Anchorage.
In 2019 a brush fire that started in a camp burned 25 acres near the Campbell Tract greenbelt. In 2022, a wildfire near the intersection of Elmore and Dowling roads in Anchorage burned 13 acres during hot, dry, windy conditions — the kind of scenario that wildland firefighting officials say they fear because of the potential for such a fire to spread. The fire, which started in an area of homeless camps, was later determined to be human-caused.
In recent months, large fires at homeless camps have burned tents and structures.
The Assembly will hold a public hearing on the proposed outside fire ordinance at its next regular meeting on May 20.
