With state on alert for wildfire danger, Mount Rainier to enact parkwide ban on all campfires
Jul 18, 2021, 8:17 AM | Updated: 8:18 am
A car drives past the Nisqually entrance to Mount Rainier National Park. (AP Photo/Ted S. Warren, File)
(AP Photo/Ted S. Warren, File)
Mount Rainier National Park has announced a parkwide ban for all campfires beginning on Friday, July 23, due to the high level of wildfires around the Pacific Northwest.
According to park officials, the U.S. as a whole is at “Fire Preparedness Level 5,” indicating “the highest level of wildland fire activity.”
“Several geographic areas are experiencing large, complex wildland fire incidents, which have the potential to exhaust national wildland firefighting resources,” the park detailed in a news release. “At least 80 percent of the country’s incident management teams and wildland firefighting personnel are committed to wildland fire incidents.”
That has “limited firefighting resources” already drawn away to combat fires in other parts of Washington,.
The ban will be in place indefinitely, but does allow exceptions for the use of portable cooking stoves and lanterns using liquid fuel.
The use of wood, briquettes or any fuel in fire pits, fire pans, and BBQ grills is banned.
