Evacuated residents allowed to return home near Mason County wildfire

Residents who live near a wildfire burning in Mason County are being allowed to return to their homes.

But authorities say they should be ready to leave again, if fires flare up close to their neighborhood.

Authorities reduced conditions to a Level 2 evacuation notice on Saturday, from a previous Level 3 that had been issued earlier in the week, for homes near the Toonerville neighborhood, northeast of Belfair.

A day earlier, firefighters said people were getting a little too close to that fire and another one, the Bear Gulch wildfire near Cushman Lake.

“They drive through the area or use motorcycles, four-wheelers, or UTVs to try to get in and get an idea of what things look like — to see what the firefighters are up to and what’s still flaming,” Norma Brock, Public Information Officer for Central Mason Fire and EMS, said.

She said that’s dangerous, and it can interfere with firefighting efforts. So can drones.

“If you fly, we can’t,” KC Whitehouse, Battalion Chief at Central Mason Fire and EMS, said.

Whitehouse did not say whether they’ve seen civilian drones while battling the Bear Gulch and Toonerville fires, but he pointed out in a post on Instagram, “As the popularity of personally owned drones has grown, we’ve seen an increase in the number of incidents where drones have come over a fire area when we’re trying to fly aviation assets to suppress the fire, and it has posed a risk to our pilots.”

Brock said they use drones to map the size of wildfires, but if they detect a civilian drone, they have to ground all their firefighting aircraft. And right now, they’re relying heavily on aircraft to fight the Bear Gulch fire, because it’s not safe for crews to attack the fire from the ground.

“It’s an extremely steep slope, lots of rock and big heavy trees because it’s forest area,” Brock explained.

She said part of the fire is burning in the Olympic National Forest. They’re using aircraft to dip water out of Lake Cushman and dump it on the fire from above.

The Bear Gulch fire has scorched 440 acres and was 0% contained as of Friday.

Local campgrounds closed due to Mason County wildfires

Local campgrounds remain closed to the public. Residents, who were temporarily evacuated, have been allowed to return but can only access their homes by boat. State Route 119, also known as Forest Road 2400, is closed to all but fire personnel because of the danger of falling debris.

Brock said ground crews are making progress on the Toonerville fire north of Belfair, which is burning on 85 acres.

“Crews have done a really good job. They’ve got lines all the way around it, they’re just not fully secured to be left alone,” she said, noting it was considered only 5% contained on Friday.

The fire continues to threaten about 50 homes, out of which a dozen are under Level 3 “get out now” evacuations.

It’s unclear what sparked the Toonerville fire Tuesday afternoon. Brock said the Bear Gulch fire, which started Sunday, was human-caused.

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