Bear Gulch Fire containment drops to 10%, covering more than 9,600 acres near Lake Cushman

The Bear Gulch Fire near Lake Cushman has grown to 9,657 acres and is only 10% contained, as of approximately 10:30 a.m. Wednesday, according to Watch Duty’s wildfire map.

Warmer temperatures and dry weather conditions on Tuesday contributed to increased fire activity, especially in the Wagonwheel Lake area. Since Aug. 25, the Bear Gulch Fire has lowered from 13% containment to 10% as crews have continued to battle the fire for nearly two months.

Rachel Lipski, public information officer for the Western Washington Type 3 Incident Management Team, told KIRO Newsradio the change was due to fire growth, not the result of having fewer firefighters on scene.

“What has happened over time is that the fire has continued to grow in these kind of fingers up drainages in really steep country,” she explained. “And so what we’ve added perimeter, and then the math problem basically works out to the amount of perimeter that’s contained becoming less.”

Level 3 evacuations for Bear Gulch Fire

The Bear Gulch Fire area near Copper Creek remains under a Level 3 “Go Now” evacuation order. The evacuation order includes the Staircase Campground and areas across the causeway on the north side of Lake Cushman.

A Level 2  “Set” evacuation notice also remains for Cushman Ridge, south of the Dry Creek Trail.

On Tuesday, priority fire operations focused on continued water drops from helicopters, backhauling equipment, fire reconnaissance, and fire suppression repairs. Fire behavior analysts do not expect substantial fire growth in the near future.

“The forecast suggests that today is basically kind of the apex of our warming and drying trend, and we’re going to kind of turn around and go into more of a cooling trend, where we are getting higher relative humidity, and that should help to kind of tamp down some of that ongoing fire activity,” Lipski said.

Crews removed the structure protection wrap that had been in place for six weeks to protect ranger station buildings at the Staircase Campground. The wrap was removed because resource managers were worried that trapped moisture could deteriorate the wooden buildings.

The road to the Staircase Campground remains unsafe for travel due to “frequent falling debris.”

Helicopters have been using precise water drops to suppress and control the spread of the fire. Water bucket drops will continue on the largest areas of smoke to cool the hot spots within the fire perimeter.

Crews will focus on helicopter water drops in active areas of the fire today, which are inaccessible to ground crews.

National Park Service Spokesperson Molly Pittman previously told KIRO Newsradio that circumstances unrelated to the burning flames have made it difficult and hazardous for firefighters to perform work efforts.

“There are trees that have been weakened because the fire has passed through there, or they have burned,” Pittman said. “We want to make sure the firefighters are safe, so we will not be in those areas that are super hazardous with those falling trees.”

Warmer temperatures are expected towards the end of the week; however, the weather is expected to cool off with a chance of rain early next week, which would help with containment.

Contributing: Heather Bosch, KIRO Newsradio

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