Crews battled several small wildfires around the Inland Northwest over the weekend, many of them burning dry brush and whipped up by brisk winds.“I feel like we’ve been chasing fires, and particularly human-caused fires, since January. March and April have been, of course, the fourth-driest spring we’ve had since 1895. As such, it’s caused drought conditions for us in a lot of the counties in Washington and you know that Ecology has issued a drought advisory," said Angie Lane, the assistant division manager for the wildfire division in the Washington Department of Natural Resources.
Ecology is the Department of Ecology.
On Friday, Spokane County fire officials imposed new restrictions, banning fires in open pits and other recreational facilities until the fire danger decreases. The one exception is devices such as chimneas that have chimneys. Lane’s agency has also issued a variety of burn restrictions in rural areas, especially slash and brush files. Lane suggests people contemplating whether to start a fire on their land or even in their backyard check with local fire agencies to see if that’s legal at the time.
