8/21/19 Borough Is Prepared For the Swan Lake Fire

Contingency planning is a priority for fire managers whenever there is fire activity that threatens infrastructure or other critical values.  As fire activity on the Swan Lake Fire has pushed the fire closer to communities, the Kenai Peninsula Borough and Incident Management Teams have done a significant amount of work developing plans and protocols to allow residents plenty of time to leave their homes in a safe manner, if and when it’s necessary. 

Many factors that complicate evacuations are evaluated during the planning process, including: number of homes, location of homes related to fire activity, road conditions, smoke levels in the area, amount of local traffic and methods of egress, etc. Fire managers alter these plans as necessary based on current and anticipated fire activity since fire activity, the location of the fire and weather conditions change constantly.