Gov. Inslee: State is doing everything it can to fight wildfires

Gov. Jay Inslee says Washington state is continuing to increase resources to fight wildfires and that everything is being done to solve the problem.

On Seattle’s Morning News, Colleen O’Brien made the point that during the time Inslee has been governor, wildfire problems have only gotten worse. She wanted to know what practical measures were taking place to tackle the problem.

“We have dramatically increased budgets, the number of firefighting units, and the number of trained personnel over the past couple of years,” Inslee said.

Inslee stated resources will have to increase over time.

The growing fire problems are a political issue

He also said the wildfires that are plaguing the state are partially a political issue because Republicans refuse to help.

“We’ve got to continue our efforts that should have started 20 years ago, and I have been working on this for about 15 or 20 years,” Inslee said.

“And a lot of these have been stopped because we have one party, in our state and in our country that has refused to help on this.  We’ve only had one party so we are sort of one [armed] on this issue. I look forward to the day when both parties are willing to work on this subject which will accelerate our efforts dramatically.”

Multiple wildfires erupt across western WA

A dramatic increase in the management of our forests

“We need to continue what we’ve been doing; a very dramatic increase in the management of our forests to reduce the fuels,” he said.

“We’ve got a goal of treating about 1.25 million acres. And we’re well on our way to do that.”

The governor said the biggest issue to fighting fires is also the most daunting

“We need to defeat climate change. And so we’ve got to continue the efforts that we’re making.”

As evidenced by the recent announcement of Inslee’s partnership with other west coast leaders, the problem is that issues don’t stop at state borders.

“So this isn’t just about six hurricanes in Florida, it’s also Pakistan with a third of the whole country underwater,” Inslee said. “This is an international thing … Ultimately, we have to stop carbon pollution, which is the ultimate reason these fires are swallowing the western United States.”

Hundreds of millions being spent

Inslee said the state needs to spend hundreds of millions of dollars to manage the forests.

He said the state is providing more suppression assets, to increase Washington state’s ability to fight these fires.

Inslee said he wanted to let people know the state is continuing to build capacity to respond to wildfires.

The governor said people want more fire suppression assets and denies allegations that planes and helicopters aren’t being used to fight fires.

“I saw a helicopter dropping assets when I was flying over from eastern Washington,” Inslee said. “I’m not sure where you’re getting that information.”

WA should not backslide on efforts

“Some people want to backslide on our climate change efforts,” he said. “I think that would be a huge mistake.”

He added the state is developing a clean energy economy which will add jobs.

“There’s no question that this is a long-term challenge for us,” the governor said. “It’s not just a seasonal thing.”

Listen to Seattle’s Morning News with Dave Ross and Colleen O’Brien weekday mornings from 5 – 9 a.m. on KIRO Newsradio, 97.3 FM. Subscribe to the podcast here.