Firefighters concerned about dry conditions across Washington

SEATTLE — The warm weather has people heading outside to enjoy the sun, but firefighters are sounding the alarm about dry conditions.

“It is going to dry things out. It’s still lush and green early in the season, but anytime we get warm weather like this, it’s going to start drying things,” Puget Sound Regional Fire Authority Captain Joe Root said.

There have already been more than 200 wildfires reported in Washington this year, and the weather outlook for this summer is warm and dry.

The Washington Department of Ecology issued a drought advisory map that includes most of the state, including all areas east of the Cascade Mountains, portions of southwest Washington and the coast.

Root said wildfires occurred during an unusually warm stretch of weather in April, including one in Green Valley near Auburn that burned for several days.

“It surprised everybody how fast fire spread in those conditions that early in the year. (It’s) indicative of a season that could be coming,” Root said.

And while the Puget Sound region is not included in the drought advisory at this point, the National Integrated Drought Information System lists much of the region as abnormally dry.

In South Hill on Monday, a large fire at an auto wrecking yard somehow started in drying brush, and on Wednesday morning, a brush fire broke out near the south end of the First Avenue South Bridge.

Congresswomen Kim Schrier and Marilyn Strickland held a wildfire preparedness event at Bonney Lake Fire Station 11 Wednesday afternoon. They were joined by local fire departments and representatives from the Washington Department of Natural Resources.

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