Sky Valley fire season

Local fire districts have dealt with a fair share of brush fires in the Sky Valley this summer, and firefighters have been deployed to help battle larger blazes in Eastern Washington.

Fire District 26 Chief Eric Andrews said he is surprised the hot, dry weather patterns experienced during this fire season haven’t resulted in more activity; at the same time there has been little wind, which can make the difference.

“As long as we don’t have wind we are usually in fairly good shape,” he said.

Residents have also done well at being careful, Andrews said. In early August crews were called out multiple times for a brush fire that grew to a few acres near Wallace Falls. It was a heavily wooded area. Sections smoldered for a few days and then reignited, he said.

Andrews said volunteers have also gone out around 10 times to work on the wildfires in other counties like Douglas and Chelan, where thousands of acres have burned. Crewmember Matt Baller had a close call while in Grant County in mid-August. He was stung by bees and had a severe reaction, he said.

The volunteer was airlifted to Confluence Health hospital in the Wenatchee Valley and placed in the ICU, Andrews said. Baller has made a full recovery, but the experience shook him up, he said.

Fire districts prepare for the added stress on resources ahead of time.

Fire District 7 spokesperson Heather Chadwick said calls rise by about 10 percent once the dry weather hits. That includes car accidents, because more people are on the road. The need for technical water and land rescues often goes when people start recreating more, she said.

Every year the agency’s firefighters take refresher courses in wildfire fighting that last up to three hours; the initial class is 40 hours, Chadwick said. Anyone who holds a Red Card can respond to complex wildfires, which behave differently than structural fires, she said.

Fire season starts in July, and can stretch until the end of September, according to the Washington State Patrol Office of the Fire Marshal. There is some give in either direction, depending on conditions like drought, snowpack and other weather patterns, according to the agency.

Most fires sparked at the beginning or end of the season are caused by people, according to the state fire marshal’s office. Wildfires can grow to engulf thousands of acres, require just as many firefighters and potentially take months to put out.

Aside from putting people and property at risk, watersheds, timberlands and recreational areas could also be damaged, according to the state fire marshal’s office. Timber harvests and cultural sites could be compromised.

Fire District 5 Chief Merlin Halverson said he has five full-time and roughly 25 part-time or volunteer firefighters. He keeps a calendar of who is willing to be called out to help other parts of the state.

The state fire marshal coordinates with emergency response agencies to move available resources to jurisdictions in Washington that have depleted their own fighting an out-of-control wildfire, according to the state fire marshal’s office. The law was established in 1992, after a wildfire destroyed acres of forest and hundreds of homes near Spokane.

Halverson said once he gets the call for a mobilization assignment, his employees or volunteers must be on the road within an hour, even if it comes in at 2 a.m. The agency has two brush trucks it uses to combat wildfires, he said.

Halverson said he doesn’t force anyone to participate in state mobilization. The season doesn’t necessarily cause financial strain on the agency, because the overtime is predicted and planned for. It does place a burden on human resources; the absence of volunteers equates to a reduction in on-call responders during that time, he said.

Chadwick, Halverson and Andrews said available equipment goes with the responders, but enough resources are left behind in case there is a local emergency.

Andrews said the experience of working on distant wildfires has proven to be invaluable. In 2016, the Proctor Creek Fire required all available local resources. It grew close to 250 acres and threatened the community by Zeke’s Drive In near Gold bar. 

Crews from around the state were called in. Lt. Scott Coulson was leading a crew and in charge of a brush truck with others nearby at one point during the efforts.

Because of his deployment during mobilizations, he was able to identify that the fire was about to burn over the area where the responders were stationed, Andrews said. Within minutes they were gone, and the site was up in flames, he said.

Had Coulson not been able to see the signs and make that call, Andrews said he believes there would have been loss of life, or injuries at the least.

Andrews said occasionally he will send volunteers out of state. He said while big events like the Proctor Creek Fire are rare in the Sky Valley, assisting other departments does make it easier to call in for help when the time does come.