After the March fire in Selawik killed two adults and two children, Northwest Arctic Borough fire officials are working to educate the community members about fire response and prevention.
Hans Nelson, the borough's Fire Safety Coordinator, traveled to Shungnak and Noatak this fall to meet with battalion chiefs, volunteer firefighters and residents and address fire safety needs in their communities. Nelson plans to travel to more villages in the upcoming months.
"When we had that Selawik fire incident," Nelson said, "our volunteer firefighters and first responders were frantically trying to access water, but they didn't realize that the river had frozen all the way through. So if we had potentially done drills, we could have very well known where to get water from and we would have been better prepared."
During his visits to Shungnak and Noatak, Nelson practiced with local fire responders — battalion chiefs and volunteers — getting water from the fire hydrants, as well as from static water sources such as rivers, ponds, lakes or even deep puddles. The training also included closely looking at buildings and structures that communities depend on the most — for example, stores that provide the majority of resources in some villages.
"We can identify if there were to be a fire incident at that store, how can we save the building in terms of where we get our water?" Nelson said. "How fast can we respond to that incident to preserve that infrastructure?"
Fire responders practiced examining hazards around the structure on fire — for example, identifying whether there is power connected to the building or fuel shutoff valves, Nelson said.
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