Resources stretched thin as wildfire season ramps up in Washington

KING COUNTY, Wash. — Evacuations are underway across the state, as Washington wildfire season reaches its half-way point.

“Things are getting stretched a little bit thin right now,” says Matthew Dehr, a wildfire meteorologist with the Department of Natural Resources.

This wildfire season more than 125,000 acres have burned across the state, with new fires coming each week.

The Pioneer Fire near Lake Chelan and the Big Horn Fire in southeast Washington remain the state’s largest wildfires for now. Each more than 30,000 acres.

Heat, lightning, lack of rain, and also humans have fueled the season. Moreso than in recent years.

“We were really hitting daily record values for fire danger as early as mid-July. Definitely a lot earlier than the past two years. And we’ve already burned quite a bit more acreage than we had up until this date in the past few seasons,” says Dehr.

His forecast? The worst is still to come.

“As we get towards the back half of August and early September, that’s when western Washington really is at most risk not only from wildfires, but also from smoke.”

But with continued fires in Canada and Oregon, western Washington resident could face air quality issues even sooner.

Fire crews are working around the clock to change that. Firefighting teams coming to Washington from departments across the country.

“It absolutely is all hands on deck. So nationally, we’re at a preparedness level five, that’s five out of five resources are stretched to the max at a national level. Regionally, the northwest is also at a preparedness level of five out of five. Resources in the region are stretched to the max,” says Dehr.

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