“I feel I have a sense of responsibility for this community. These are my kids, these are my parents,” said Dee Dee Ivanoff, superintendent of St. Mary’s School District.
Lightning ignited the East Fork Fire on May 31 and it’s grown to 141,100 acres, tearing across tundra, brush and black spruce in Southwest Alaska.now less than 4 miles from the flames
Beth Ipsen is a spokesperson from the Bureau of Land Management. She said that having Ivanoff help out made the whole process of getting firefighters and support staff on the ground much smoother. But there’s still plenty for Ivanoff to do. On Monday she helped organize a meeting for community members and agencies. She’s attending at least two meetings a day with state, local and federal officials. She’s doing all this while taking a class so that she can finalize her superintendent certification.
“I think we’ve been working really good as a team. Gail, Scumpy, Mooch, and the coordination has been going well,” said Ivanoff. who have stayed in town are helping too. They’re cooking food for the firefighters and clearing brush from around buildings.