Washington state lands officials say it’s been an active wildfire season so far, but not a catastrophic one. SPR’s Doug Nadvornick talked with Ryan Rodruck from the state Department of Natural Resources to get a summer update.
This interview has been lightly edited for brevity and clarity.
Ryan Rodruck: We had predicted at DNR an above normal fire season, and I think the number of ignitions that we're seeing statewide are in line with that prediction of an above normal season. We're seeing ignitions that are on par with what we've seen in the previous years. That said, we are well below the 10-year average that we track on for total number of acres burned.
Doug Nadvornick: And why do you think that is?
RR: We have put a lot of emphasis this year on initial attack and also aircraft. We have put a lot of resources both on the ground and in the air staggered around the state to help reduce those response times. So, when folks see those DNR engines showing up on a fire, just know that those resources have been staged strategically, that we can get on these fires very, very quickly. We try to limit them to about 10 acres or less. We know that statistically, if we can keep those fires at 10 acres or less, the chance that they will turn into a catastrophic wildfire decreases exponentially, and also an emphasis on aircraft.
This year to date, we've dropped well over a million gallons of water on the fires that have been in DNR jurisdictions and also through our mutual aid agreements. So, with that combination of resources staged strategically throughout the state for ground resources and the significant use of air resources, we've been able to limit the acreage and the starts of those catastrophic wildfires.
DN: We have not really had a big, big fire in the last couple of years. If you had to think about acreage, what do you consider a catastrophic fire?
RR: We consider a large fire to be any fire that's 100 acres or above, but definitely when you start seeing acreages in the thousands, you know, anywhere from 2,500 to upwards of 10,000 acres, we would definitely consider that a catastrophic wildfire.
But we also factor in what values are at risk. You know, are there homes and properties that need to be protected? Are there forest resources that are at risk? So, there's a lot that goes into calculating those values at risk. But DNR during initial attack places a large emphasis on making sure that those structures are protected properly, that they're going to weather any kind of flame front that might come in, and also again staggering those ground and air resources to ensure that we're making the most impactful attack on that fire that we can.
DN: There’s been a lot of emphasis on preparing the land with thinning projects and that sort of thing. Are you starting to see the benefits of that around the region?
RR: We are really seeing the benefits from both those prescribed fires and forest health treatments. We saw that on the Burdoin fire down in the Columbia River Gorge. That was a large costly fire, but part of that flame front was interrupted by a treatment that had been done in the area. And I'll give you an example. Just in Spokane last year, we had that Upper Cemetery fire, and that fire ran right into a cooperative forest health treatment, and it significantly slowed that fire's progress. So, the treatments that we're doing, both prescribed fire and thinning treatments, are working. They're slowing down the spread of those catastrophic wildfires and look to see more of those treatments happening in the future.
DN: Does having all of those pre-placed apparatus, does that help with the early cooperation between local and, let’s say, state and regional fire districts?
RR: It does. We have a significant amount of mutual aid agreements in place. DNR is always standing ready to assist our partners when called on, and that goes for aircraft too. House Bill 1498 allowed for us to have local fire districts dispatching those DNR aircraft directly.
So, no need to exercise any kind of mutual aid agreement or paperwork. They just go straight to dispatch, and they can have those DNR helicopters on scene in that fire district during the initial attack phase.
