Jim Strickland lives on Haystack Road, north of Fairbanks, just a few miles away from where the Himalaya and Haystack Road fires are still smoldering. On Wednesday afternoon, smoke drifted from a few spots on a hillside, but it blended into the rain clouds above. Everywhere you went, it still smelled like a barbecue.
The borough downgraded the evacuation notice for Strickland’s neighborhood this morning. But just a few days ago, Jim said, it looked like the fire was heading straight for Haystack.
“I could see the flames taller than the ridge, probably 150, 200-feet tall,” he said. “Then I said, ‘It's time to maybe go somewhere.’”
Strickland fled to town. He’d been under an evacuation notice for a couple days by then, but many in the neighborhood declined to heed it. He said that’s generally the way it works in Haystack.
“I moved in at the start of a fire two years ago, and then it got probably a mile from my place at that time,” Strickland said. “But I'm watching it and people go, ‘Meh.’ Everything's a risk, but you kind of measure it out.”
There were still a few fires scattered around the community on Wednesday, but recent rains had calmed things down somewhat. The Red Cross closed its shelter in Fairbanks shortly after the evacuation downgrade — it was only open for about two days. Strickland said he’s returning home, for now, and he’s ready to drop everything and leave again if the fires pick up.
But some Haystack residents never left at all, like Robin Metzner, who said it looked like doomsday over the weekend.
“Homesteads were pretty much surrounded,” he said. “Yeah, it's one of those feelings where you can feel the walls closing in.”
Metzner, wearing a sidearm and no shirt, was getting ready for a fire preparedness meeting Wednesday evening in front of his house, a cathedral of antlers, halloween decorations, and emergency provisions piled high.
“I mean, my place looks like the flotilla from ‘Waterworld,’” he said.
The Haystack neighborhood includes off-gridders, farmers, and quite a few self-described “rugged individualists.” The borough had the neighborhood on the highest alert, the one called “Go.” But many households refused to leave, opting to try to defend their homes from the fire themselves.
Metzner said many were reluctant to leave because they have so much to lose — it’s not easy to build back from a fire so far away from town.
“This is all we got,” he said. “If we lose our properties here, winter’s coming. I don't think people are like, ‘Oh yeah! Well, know, you'll get insurance. It'll be fine, it'll pay you!’ Unfortunately, it gets really cold in about three months.”
Francesca Baca, a spokesperson for the federal firefighters at the scene of the Himalaya Road Fire, said she appreciates it when residents try to put up a defensible space around their property, as many have in the Haystack neighborhood. But she said people should still heed the borough’s evacuation warnings.
Fairbanks Borough Mayor Grier Hopkins said local government doesn’t issue those evacuation orders lightly. He admitted it can be hard for people to uproot their families on short notice, but he said it’s imperative that people get out when the orders come down.
“We can't force anybody to leave their homes, just like from hurricanes in the south,” he said. “When people heed the evacuation orders, it helps keep our first responders and firefighters safe, because they're out there doing hard work. And if they're able to do their jobs without distractions, everybody's lives and property is going to be that much safer.”
On the other side of town, in a cozy dry cabin, Daisy Huang was getting ready to evacuate. Rifling through her bug-out bag, she took account of all the necessities: a first aid kit, a handful of peanut butter Clif Bars, water, spare clothing — even a couple of hand warmers, though it isn’t cold out.
Hotel rooms across the city are going for hundreds of dollars a night — it’s tourist season. So, like many evacuated Fairbanksans, Huang, her husband and their two dogs, Raven and Cricket will be staying with friends. She said she’ll choose the safety of her family and pets over her property every single time.
“The question is, are you gonna die trying to save your house?” Huang asked. “You can either save yourself and your family and your pets and what you can — or, nothing.”
Huang’s neighborhood isn’t actually under an evacuation notice — yet. But it’s right up against a neighborhood that is, with the Nenana Ridge Fire burning just a few miles away.
Over the last week, about 5,000 people across the borough have been issued some degree of evacuation notice, from “get ready” to “get out.” And some residents who haven’t been issued any notice at all, like Huang, still feel like the fires are too close and are getting out early.
Huang said that while she might be over preparing, she’ll sleep better farther from the fire. She said some old family values are at play, too.
“My grandparents were born and raised in China,” she said. “They ran from China to Taiwan with nothing but the clothes on their backs. My mom — her parents always taught her, like, be prepared to run.”
Back in Haystack, Metzner was getting ready for a meeting between residents and borough officials, who delivered the news that their evacuation warning will be lowered — for now.
Metzner said he and other residents are planning to hold another community safety meeting when it’s all over, to talk about what worked and what didn’t. He said hopefully they’ll celebrate the fact that they all pulled through, maybe with a barbecue.
