Summer grass, brush fires at 8-year peak

Tim Dawdy, a battalion chief with Clark County Fire & Rescue, said this has been one of the busiest fire seasons he’s seen in the area in his more than 30-year career.

The number of larger-scale fires west of the Cascades is instructive as far as judging this season, he said; the west side is wetter and greener, and is usually less prone to fire.

According to the state Department of Natural Resources, in the Pacific Cascades Region — which includes Clark along with Wahkiakum, Cowlitz, Skamania, Lewis, Thurston and Grays Harbor counties — DNR firefighters have responded to 123 wildfires from June 1 to Sept. 2.

That time last year, DNR crews went to 72 fires.

Even the Olympic national forest and park caught fire this year, Dawdy said, and that’s a rainforest.

“To start a fire there is pretty darn difficult,” he said. “This has been an exceptional fire season by any measure.”

Along with grass fires, many other calls have been for fires in bark dust.

There have been 419 fires in bark dust from the start of June to Sept. 1, almost double from the year before, and the highest number in CRESA’s records.

The Vancouver Fire Department has fielded the most bark dust fire calls, with almost 300 so far this summer. That, too, nearly doubles six of the totals for the seven summers prior.

“It’s extremely dry, and people aren’t being careful with their discarded cigarettes and stuff like that, Clark County Fire District 6 Battalion Chief Larry Reese said.

He said his district has helped out with the Vancouver Fire Department, which has been busy with grass fire responses, but District 6’s corner has been fairly calm as far as outdoor fires.

“I think Clark County’s been pretty lucky,” Reese said.

Still, Dawdy said the county’s fire danger hasn’t subsided yet.

“We haven’t even hit our prime few weeks where we’ll have that east wind period,” he said.

Some of the larger fires in the region’s history — around Yacolt, Tillamook, Ore., or in the Columbia River Gorge — came in late summer and early fall.

That east wind weather pattern regularly brings drier, warmer conditions for a time before things really cool down, he said.

Also, even with the past few days’ rain, it takes time for moisture in vegetation to reach an equilibrium with the environment, whether it’s getting hot and out or cooler and wet.

Dry grass or small, fallen twigs reach that balance with the environment faster. In larger vegetation, such as downed branches or dead trees, reaching the balance takes longer, which is why they’re called 1,000-hour or 10,000-hour fuels among fire managers.

The past few winters haven’t been as rainy, Dawdy said, meaning the heavier vegetation isn’t reaching that balance of moisture during the time of year it usually does.

In part, that’s why fire restrictions haven’t been relaxed, and why there have been more fires, and more active fires, across the Northwest, he said.

“Now we’re dealing with a cumulative effect,” Dawdy said.

Ben Peeler, chief for Fire District 13 and North Country EMS, said when he started in the district, “we were the asbestos forest.”

“We would have fires burning across clear cuts or pastures but they would lie down as soon as the flame front would hit the tree line,” he said. “About five years ago I noticed a change to that.”

Fires started burning hot enough to work into greener vegetation and replanted clear-cuts, he said.

The statewide incident management team he works on has been on more and more large-scale fires west of the Cascades, which would never happen years ago.

“With temperatures above the norms, low humidity levels, significant winds, multi-year droughts and tinder-dry fire fuels are all factors leading to what I am referring now to as our new normal fire seasons,” he said.

The sooner people, fire agencies and officials acknowledge the impact climate change is having on wildfire behavior, the sooner better responses can be planned, he said.

“Our communities and leaders have to recognize this is our state’s new normal, and it is going to take significant changes with shared responsibility for us to deal with the new normal.”