About 120 acres of farmland in Mossyrock is now completely charred.
"It was hot, it come up to them trees and it just exploded,” said resident Ed Rico.
Rico watched the Lewis County field go up in flames Tuesday. Spots were still smoldering the next day.
"It was burning everything," said Rico.
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Firefighters got the fire under control within a few hours, but the grass is scorched and smoke is still billowing. The fire started as a brush fire that got out of hand.
"It's scary, very scary. People have just got to be very careful when they're burning their debris,” said Lewis County Fire District 3 Chief Doug Fosburg. "Our guys weren't able to stand in front of it, it was just moving too fast."
The Department of Natural Resources reports at least 24 fires have started in western Washington since Monday.
"I am concerned that it's going to be worse than last year,” said Hilary Franz, Commissioner of Public Lands.
More than 315 acres have already burned.
From the sky, Chopper 7 captured video of brush fires in Spanaway and South Prairie. Crews are stretched thin.
“We're already having to get our firefighters on the ground and we're still in the process of getting everyone trained and getting to full capacity because we're not used to it starting as early as March,” said Franz.
Many worry this is just a taste of what's to come.
“If this is what the summer is going to be like, it's going to be horrible,” said Rico.
Last year, 90 percent of wildfires in Washington were human-caused.
Cox Media Group
