Crews monitoring wildfire near Oso-Arlington area
May 13, 2016, 6:02 AM | Updated: 7:58 am
Crews have been sent to a growing wildfire Thursday night near the Oso-Arlington area. (KIRO 7)
(KIRO 7)
Crews are battling a wildfire in the Oso-Arlington area that grew to more than 100 acres since Thursday night.
The fire off Highway 530 started at about 6 p.m. Thursday. It is about six miles from the area that was wiped out by a massive landslide in 2014, KIRO 7 reports.
According to fire officials, there was a logging operation earlier in the day that may have started the fire. They said they were not sure what the cause was, but the area has been being logged for about a month.
The Washington State Department of Natural Resources officials said the fire, named “Hotshot,” had burned about 55 acres by Thursday night. Firefighters let the fire burn and monitored it overnight. As of Friday morning, the fire had burned 80 acres.
A team from the DNR will lead the operation and firefighters are mobilizing at 6 a.m. Friday. Two helicopters will be in the area to make water drops.
The fire is burning on a hillside above some homes, but the Oso fire chief said he believes they can stop the fire from reaching them. No homes are in immediate danger.
Because the fire is burning at the site of the logging operation, where there is dense forest, it will not burn out on its own.
Though winds died down overnight, crews are concerned that they will pick up again Friday afternoon, when temperatures will be the hottest this week. A high of 89 is forecast for Oso with east winds of 9 to 11 mph.
The chief said there is also concern over a piece of logging equipment at the top of the hill that is worth $1 million.
No injuries have been reported.
The DNR said it’s very early for a fire of this size to be burning already in Western Washington.
