Bear Gulch wildfire spreads, firefighters looking forward to cooler, wetter weather

As a Puget Sound heat advisory entered its second day, Tuesday, firefighters expected the Bear Gulch wildfire near Lake Cushman to continue to grow.

The human-caused fire has burned 6,196 acres with containment only at 3%, according to Public Information Officer John Artley.

“There’s very little we can do to actually stop the progression,” he explained.

Crews can’t get into a position to head off the fire.

“Most of the fire is now burning in the wilderness area in the really steep, rugged terrain, and it’s not really safe or feasible to insert crews,” Artley said.

The fire appears to be moving away from populated areas, where firefighters have successfully prevented it from burning any structures.

But Level 3 “Get Out Now” evacuations remain in effect near the Dry Creek trail, including the Staircase Campground and areas across the causeway on the north side of Lake Cushman.

There are extensive closures on the southeast corner of Olympic National Park.

“Part of Lake Cushman, the most northern part, is still closed to the public, but the lower half area has been opened,” Artley said.

Potential for smoke from Bear Gulch wildfire

The heat advisory was expected to end Tuesday night, as cooler winds off the Pacific move into western Washington. Those same winds could push wildfire smoke into the greater Seattle area, but Meteorologist Ted Buehner expected it to be a short-lived event.

“When we start to see the onshore flow of the cooler air coming in, some of that smoke will probably get over to the rest of the Puget Sound area, but it should come in and get out pretty quickly because we’ll start to see the marine clouds on Wednesday morning,” Buehner said.

The wind is not expected to exacerbate the fire, “though there will probably be some gusts in different areas,” Artley explained.

Overall, firefighters are looking forward to the impact that the cooler, wetter weather will have on the wildfire.

“It’ll definitely slow down the growth,” Artley said.

But mild weather is no longer a given, even in western Washington. Drought is providing more dry fuel for wildfires, making them a more common occurrence.

“I think normally a fire wouldn’t spread this much on the Olympic Peninsula,” Artley said.

“We are so far behind on our rainfall for the year, thus far,” Buehner said, confirming Artley’s concerns. “I’ll give you an example. SeaTac Airport is about 6 1/2 inches of rain behind average. Everett is more than 12 inches [behind], and if you go out to the north coast, out at Forks? They’re more than 20 inches behind for the year.”

“We’ve got moderate to severe drought conditions across much of the state of Washington at this point,” he said. “We really need to make sure we don’t have any human-related fire starts.”

Investigators believe people started the Bear Gulch fire. They’re just not sure how.

Anyone with information on how the fire might have started is urged to contact the Forest Service Tipline at (541) 618-2154 or SM.FS.R6TipHotLine@usda.gov.

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