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Alabama's Spring Wildfire Season: Expert Tips from the Forestry Commission - TPR's In Focus - April 2, 2026 · In Focus with Carolyn Hutcheson

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  Support comes from Troy University's Trojan Cafe,
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  offering handcrafted Starbucks beverages and a wide assortment of meal and snack options,
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  located on Troy University's Montgomery campus, across from the Rosa Parks Library and Museum.
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  From Troy Public Radio, this is In Focus, and I'm Carolyn Hutcheson.
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  Spring has brought warm temperatures, high winds, drought conditions, and wildfires,
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  so we asked John Goff, Protection Division Director at the Alabama Forestry Commission,
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  for his advice. We talked with John earlier this week on his way
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  back from checking on a wildfire, and he joined us from his truck.
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  John, thanks for joining us from the Alabama Forestry Commission.
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  Glad to be here.
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  John, you've been checking areas of the state that have been experiencing drought and wildfires.
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  What have you found?
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  Right now, we have approximately 47, I believe, fires that we're currently monitoring. Those
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  total up to about 5,000 acres. One fire in particular is about 2,500 acres. We were actually
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  up in Shelby County yesterday doing the final burnout, and hopefully have contained that fire.
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  What is involved in fighting a fire of that magnitude?
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  Well, when you get one over a large area like that, it's pretty tough. You have to have a lot
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  more people on scene to monitor all the lines, so there's fire on all sides of that 2,500 acres.
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  It starts taking a lot of people and resources to be able to keep eyes on it the whole time.
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  So just yesterday, I think there were three bulldozers and maybe around 10 people. We had
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  a drone up, tons of side-by-sides, a few four-wheelers, so a lot of people, a lot of moving
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  parts.
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  Tell me about the safety angle.
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  So we try to do everything we can to train our guys so they're ready for anything that they
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  encounter. Just being in the woods and being on equipment in itself is hazardous.
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  While the woods are on fire, it throws it into a totally different realm. But our guys are
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  trained. They're trained on how fire behaves and how you can manipulate fire. Situational
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  awareness and communication is what it all boils down to. If you have that, then you're going to
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  be able to be safe. But if you can keep good communication going and everybody knows what
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  everybody's doing, it kind of takes care of itself.
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  In the case of that huge fire in Shelby County with that team that you sent, how long did
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  it take to contain it?
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  So it was a control burn that was done last Tuesday. A few days later, the fire got out
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  and we went to it on Friday. Crews are still up there actively trying to suppress the jump
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  from the prescribed fire. What makes that spot so difficult, it got a lot of size on it
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  and the terrain. Really hilly, mountainous terrain. So you have to be selective about
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  where your fire lines go and how you go about doing things because the terrain limits where
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  you can put a bulldozer. So you have to get a little more tactical in where you put the
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  lines in and then you have to do burnouts to control those lines.
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  When these wildland firefighters are battling a blaze that big, how long is their day?
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  I'd say like a typical volunteer fire department, those guys are your first line of defense,
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  right? If you have a fire behind your house or something gets out, like you call 9-1-1,
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  a fire department goes on scene. That's who goes first. If it gets in the woods or is
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  beyond their capability, then their 9-1-1 center calls our dispatch center. That's
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  usually how it works and then we get in route. So for most average fires, 5, 10, even 20
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  acres, I think our average fire size is around 20 acres. So you have a lot of small ones and
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  you have some big ones thrown in there. But you could probably expect, no matter what the size,
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  to probably be there about four hours. With this drought that we're facing, how likely
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  are we to have fires? In Alabama, you're never more than two weeks away from a drought.
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  So anytime you start seeing that, you start really getting elevated fire conditions. Things
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  are greening up, but we're in desperate need of some rain to kind of temper things down.
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  You will always have a spring and a fall fire season. High winds, low humidity, that's your
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  big drivers. And if the grass has not greened up, which is pretty green down in your listening area,
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  Montgomery South, it's greening up pretty good. But mid to north Alabama, it still looks like
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  winter if you drive up above Birmingham. Our fire season sort of sweeps across the state in
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  different areas at different times. So in the last 30 days, we've had 346 fires for 7,000 acres.
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  It seems like we've had more larger fires this year. On average, the Forest Commission will
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  respond to probably 2,000, 2,500 fires every year. And those acres can range from 20,000 acres,
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  25,000 acres, and it can get on upwards of 60,000 acres. It just depends. It's all weather driven.
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  Could you give the landowners some advice? So as far as advice for landowners, I would say make
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  sure you're aware of the current conditions when you call in and get a permit. And listen to whoever
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  is issuing you that permit. If there's a weather alert or something you need to know about the
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  weather, they're going to tell you if there's a warning or something you should proceed with
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  caution. So listen to them and take their advice. But the biggest thing I think that people overlook
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  is today may be a pretty good burning day, but you need to look four or five days down the line.
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  So it may be perfect today. There may not be any rain in the forecast for seven days. Well, if
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  that's the case, then for the next week, your fire could potentially get out and cause you problems
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  days after the fact. Just keep in mind, not only look at conditions right now, but kind of be
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  forward thinking a little bit. And hasn't the Alabama Forestry Commission pulled back on
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  issuing burn permits? We did. Here recently, well this year and last year, we've tried to be a lot
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  more proactive in turning permits on and off. Just for instance, this last Saturday was a really bad
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  fire day. Really high winds, really low humidity. So we put an advisory out for Friday and limited
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  permits Friday and cut out permits Saturday. And then Sunday, we limited permits again. And then
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  Monday, we opened permitting back up. You have people listening to you who may not be rural
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  landowners, but they may be homeowners. What advice do you have for them? If you're a homeowner, and
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  we call it the wildland urban interface, but a lot of people are out of the city into the country,
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  and you'll have five, ten acre lots, and people will plop a house right in the middle of that.
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  The way to think about being fire ready for your house, firewise, whatever you want to call it,
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  is if you were not there and a fire came into your yard, would your house survive that with nobody
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  being there? And that's what you want. You want defensible space. So you want a good distance
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  between the woods and your house. You want it to be free of debris. You don't want a solid bed of
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  pine straw going from the woods all the way under your back deck that's wooden. You just keep it
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  cleaned out around your house and your grass down, and you should be okay. One of the tools that the
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  Alabama Forestry Commission is quite familiar with is prescribed burns. What do they do?
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  The number one best thing you can do for the environment, for timber, for wildlife, for
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  aesthetics, the entire southeast used to burn probably anywhere from a one to two, one to three
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  year rotation, at least once every five to ten years as you get further away from the coast. But
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  the reason we had the woods that we had 150 years ago was because of fire, and the way to get those
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  back is because of fire. So with that comes a lot of responsibility, and we need to do things the
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  right way. Just urge caution. I encourage everybody, if you're interested in burning, get up with your
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  Forestry Commission, either Georgia or the Florida Forest Service or the Alabama Forestry Commission,
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  and they will educate you. We have classes. They can give you a list of consultant foresters or
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  consultant burn managers. You can figure out how to put fire on your property and do it safely.
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  Well, obviously, a lot of teamwork is involved between the volunteer firefighters,
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  professional firefighters, wildland firefighters to keep us all safe. You know, volunteer fire guys
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  and the state firefighters, Forestry Commission boys, they do a lot of work, and you
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  got to love it. It is work, but it is very fun work to go out in the middle of the woods in a place
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  that you've never been before, and you have to figure out how to traverse the terrain, find the
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  hazards, and put a fire out in a place that you've never been and probably never will go back to.
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  So it's definitely challenging, and those guys do a very, very good job. Thank you so much for
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  joining us today. Thank you. That was John Goff, Protection Division Director at the Alabama
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  Forestry Commission. More information can be found at the forestry.alabama.gov website.
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  Thanks for joining us today for In Focus, which is a podcast wherever you get your podcasts.
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  I'm Carolyn Hutcheson, and this is listener-supported Troy Public Radio.