Bolt Creek Fire crews reach critical turning point

SNOHOMISH COUNTY, Wash. — After roughly a month of fighting the Bolt Creek Fire, crews could soon be departing the Cascades.

Incident Commander Leonard Johnson says they’ve reached a critical point in the firefight, just in the nick of time.

Once conditions are under control on the west side of Index, emergency management crews will begin to scale back.

Evacuation guidance for residents in King and Snohomish counties was also dropped on Monday night.

“We should be able to start to reduce the number of firefighters here and start to leave Monroe,” said Johnson. “We’re getting late in the season, so it’s hard to find resources right now.”

According to Johnson, they’ve pulled resources from all over the country to stop this fire from spreading. In fact, some crews had travelled to Snohomish County all the way from South Carolina.

Organizers have been criticized for taking what’s been called an “indirect strategy” in putting out the blaze.

“We have heard that a lot, we are being as proactive as we can be in this particular landscape,” said Johnson. “The terrain is really difficult out there.”

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