‘It’s only Aug. 24’: Fires expected to burn for months

SPOKANE — As Washington state’s wildfires burned into the record books Monday, calls for help were answered from far and near.

Fire managers from New Zealand and Australia arrived to contribute to a ground campaign led by firefighters from across the West and augmented by U.S. soldiers.

The flames that claimed the lives of three firefighters, injured four others and burned 200 homes also inspired an outpouring of volunteers who have been invited for the first time in state history to help battle the blazes.

This summer’s fire response across the West has been overwhelmed by destructive blazes tearing through the tinder-dry region.

The biggest fire burning Monday was in Okanogan County on the Canadian border, where a group of five fires raging out of control became the largest in state history, scorching more than 400 square miles, fire spokesman Rick Isaacson said.

Lightning-sparked fires broke the state record, surpassing blazes that destroyed more than 300 homes in the same county last year.

“I’d like to set some different records,” Okanogan County Sheriff Frank Rogers said.

The U.S. is in the midst of one of its worst fire seasons on record with some 11,600 square miles scorched so far. It’s only the sixth-worst going back to 1960, but it’s the most acreage burned by this date in a decade, so the ranking is sure to rise.

“It’s only Aug. 24th,” Isaacson said. “In our district we could see this go clear to the first of November.”

Thirteen firefighters have died nationwide this year, including the three in Washington state who were killed when they tried to escape the fire in a vehicle, crashed and were overrun by flames.

So many fires are burning in the state that managers are taking extreme measures, summoning help from Down Under and 200 U.S. troops from a base in Tacoma in the first such use of active-duty soldiers in nine years.

Jim Whittington, a Bureau of Land Management spokesman in Portland, Oregon, said military assets cannot be used against wildfires until all civilian resources are deployed.

Since 1987, active duty military personnel have been mobilized to serve as wildland firefighters a total of 35 times. The last time was in 2006.

Since then, it has not been necessary to ask for military assistance until this fire season, Forest Service officials said.

Nearly 4,000 volunteers also answered the state’s call for help, far more than will be accepted, said state Department of Natural Resources spokesman Joe Smillie.

The state is looking for former firefighters or heavy equipment operators who can bulldoze fire lines to corral the blazes and keep them from spreading in mountainous, timber-covered areas. So far, about 200 people with the right experience have been cleared to work.

The 70 firefighters from Australia and New Zealand who arrived at the National Interagency Fire Center in Boise, Idaho, were being outfitted to fill a critical shortage of mid-level fire managers such as equipment bosses, strike team leaders and supervisors.

The Southern Hemisphere nations have been partners with the U.S. for more than 50 years, able to lend out firefighters because the severest part of their fire seasons occur at opposite times of the year. The last time the U.S. asked for their help was 2008, with 50 firefighters arriving. The U.S. sent firefighters abroad in 2007.

Chris Arnol, international liaison for Australia and New Zealand firefighters, said at a news conference in Boise the firefighters will be ready for the mountainous terrain in the Pacific Northwest.

Warren Heslip, a 47-year-old firefighter from Southland, New Zealand, said the new arrivals were ready for the conditions.

“We’re used to tall timber and steep territory,” he said.

Costs for the international firefighters will be paid by the agency they’re assigned to, officials said, though no estimate was yet available.

According to The Wenatchee World, the Wolverine Fire is burning in the uppermost reaches of the Entiat Ranger District and is located on National Forest System lands above Cottonwood and Myrtle Lake. The fire is moving across the Larch Lakes area and toward the Rock Creek drainage on the Wenatchee River Ranger District side.

With the fire’s potential to spread into the Rock Creek drainage and into the Chiwawa River drainage with only a single road in and out, clearing campers and recreationists from the Chiwawa drainage is being undertaken at this time, said Forest Service spokeswoman Susan Peterson in a press release. Recreationists utilizing the campgrounds and trails within the Chiwawa River drainage are being contacted today and asked to leave.

A forest closure is in effect for the area northwest of Grouse Creek Group Campground at the Chikamin Road junction to encompass the entire Chiwawa River drainage, its campgrounds and trails.

This action is being undertaken as a precautionary measure due to unpredictable large fire behavior in the area and the potential difficulty in evacuating this area in the event of rapid fire spread, Peterson said.

In Snohomish County

In Snohomish County, the U.S. Forest Service has been monitoring a fire on Jumbo Mountain south of Darrington for several days.

The fire is less than an acre and on a rock cliff. Smoke from the fire is visible along local roads and rural highways.

Elsewhere

In Southern California, crews used snow-making cannons to blow water and planes dropped fire retardant at a 100-acre wildfire burning near the popular Snow Summit ski resort in Big Bear Lake. They were able to build a perimeter halfway around the blaze, but hundreds of homes remained threatened in the mountainous area, about 100 miles east of Los Angeles.

In Montana, firefighters traveled by rail to the edge of a thick forest to build fuel breaks to slow or stop a wildfire creeping toward a major rail line and U.S. 2 on Glacier National Park’s southern boundary.

Firefighters had been limited to attacking the blaze by air because the steep, dense terrain left few escape options for ground crews if the fire that has burned about a square mile suddenly shifted.

Talk to us

> Give us your news tips.

> Send us a letter to the editor.

> More Herald contact information.

More in Local News

A firefighter stands in silence before a panel bearing the names of L. John Regelbrugge and Kris Regelbrugge during the ten-year remembrance of the Oso landslide on Friday, March 22, 2024, at the Oso Landslide Memorial in Oso, Washington. (Ryan Berry / The Herald)
‘Flood of emotions’ as Oso Landslide Memorial opens on 10th anniversary

Friends, family and first responders held a moment of silence at 10:37 a.m. at the new 2-acre memorial off Highway 530.

Julie Petersen poses for a photo with images of her sister Christina Jefferds and Jefferds’ grand daughter Sanoah Violet Huestis next to a memorial for Sanoah at her home on March 20, 2024 in Arlington, Washington. Peterson wears her sister’s favorite color and one of her bangles. (Annie Barker / The Herald)
‘It just all came down’: An oral history of the Oso mudslide

Ten years later, The Daily Herald spoke with dozens of people — first responders, family, survivors — touched by the deadliest slide in U.S. history.

Victims of the Oso mudslide on March 22, 2014. (Courtesy photos)
Remembering the 43 lives lost in the Oso mudslide

The slide wiped out a neighborhood along Highway 530 in 2014. “Even though you feel like you’re alone in your grief, you’re really not.”

Director Lucia Schmit, right, and Deputy Director Dara Salmon inside the Snohomish County Department of Emergency Management on Friday, March 8, 2024, in Everett, Washington. (Ryan Berry / The Herald)
How Oso slide changed local emergency response ‘on virtually every level’

“In a decade, we have just really, really advanced,” through hard-earned lessons applied to the pandemic, floods and opioids.

Ron and Gail Thompson at their home on Monday, March 4, 2024 in Oso, Washington. (Olivia Vanni / The Herald)
In shadow of scarred Oso hillside, mudslide’s wounds still feel fresh

Locals reflected on living with grief and finding meaning in the wake of a catastrophe “nothing like you can ever imagine” in 2014.

Rep. Suzan DelBene, left, introduces Xichitl Torres Small, center, Undersecretary for Rural Development with the U.S. Department of Agriculture during a talk at Thomas Family Farms on Monday, April 3, 2023, in Snohomish, Washington. (Olivia Vanni / The Herald)
Under new federal program, Washingtonians can file taxes for free

At a press conference Wednesday, U.S. Rep. Suzan DelBene called the Direct File program safe, easy and secure.

Former Snohomish County sheriff’s deputy Jeremie Zeller appears in court for sentencing on multiple counts of misdemeanor theft Wednesday, March 27, 2024, at Snohomish County Superior Court in Everett, Washington. (Ryan Berry / The Herald)
Ex-sheriff’s deputy sentenced to 1 week of jail time for hardware theft

Jeremie Zeller, 47, stole merchandise from Home Depot in south Everett, where he worked overtime as a security guard.

Everett
11 months later, Lake Stevens man charged in fatal Casino Road shooting

Malik Fulson is accused of shooting Joseph Haderlie to death in the parking lot at the Crystal Springs Apartments last April.

T.J. Peters testifies during the murder trial of Alan Dean at the Snohomish County Courthouse on Tuesday, March 26, 2024 in Everett, Washington. (Olivia Vanni / The Herald)
Bothell cold case trial now in jury’s hands

In court this week, the ex-boyfriend of Melissa Lee denied any role in her death. The defendant, Alan Dean, didn’t testify.

A speed camera facing west along 220th Street Southwest on Tuesday, Nov. 21, 2023 in Edmonds, Washington. (Olivia Vanni / The Herald)
New Washington law will allow traffic cams on more city, county roads

The move, led by a Snohomish County Democrat, comes as roadway deaths in the state have hit historic highs.

Mrs. Hildenbrand runs through a spelling exercise with her first grade class on the classroom’s Boxlight interactive display board funded by a pervious tech levy on Tuesday, March 19, 2024 in Marysville, Washington. (Olivia Vanni / The Herald)
Lakewood School District’s new levy pitch: This time, it won’t raise taxes

After two levies failed, the district went back to the drawing board, with one levy that would increase taxes and another that would not.

Alex Hanson looks over sections of the Herald and sets the ink on Wednesday, March 30, 2022 in Everett, Washington. (Olivia Vanni / The Herald)
Black Press, publisher of Everett’s Daily Herald, is sold

The new owners include two Canadian private investment firms and a media company based in the southern United States.

Support local journalism

If you value local news, make a gift now to support the trusted journalism you get in The Daily Herald. Donations processed in this system are not tax deductible.