October arrives, but Washington’s wildfire season continues

October has arrived, but Washington’s wildfire season is far from over.

Washington State Commissioner of Public Lands Dave Upthegrove toured the area near the Labor Mountain fire on Wednesday, one of the major wildfires still burning in the state.

“Right now, in Washington State, 237,000 acres have burned this fire season,” Upthegrove said. “We have 11 major fires burning right now, in the state of Washington.”

The Bear Gulch Fire is among this year’s fires. It is on the Olympic Peninsula.

“[It is] the largest fire we’ve seen in Western Washington in decades, a reminder that this is an all of Washington issue,” Upthegrove said.

He warned that lingering smoke is putting people’s health at risk — especially seniors, children, and those with respiratory conditions.

WA wildfires lead the nation in poor air quality

Recently, the region recorded the worst air quality in the United States because of wildfire smoke.

“Every part of the state of Washington has been impacted by wildfire smoke this year,” Upthegrove said. “If the legislature doesn’t restore our wildfire prevention and response funding, we will see more fires, bigger fires, and higher costs to taxpayers with more smoke impacting people’s health.”

Wildfires have forced the closure of Blewett Pass on U.S. Highway 97 since last month due to the Labor Mountain and Lower Sugarloaf fires.

As of late Thursday morning, the Lower Sugarloaf fire had burned 39,594 acres and was 48% contained.

Tim Sampson, a deputy incident commander for the Lower Sugarloaf fire, said winds are in the forecast.

“We want to make sure we keep the foot on the gas pedal and make sure that we do our due diligence, continue working the lines, continue working the resources on the ground, so if we get the winds coming this weekend, we are prepared for that,” Sampson said.

The Labor Mountain Fire was just 7% contained and has burned 37,613 acres.

“We’re focused on trying to keep this fire as small as we can with as little cost as we can,” Jeff Dimke, Incident Commander on the Labor Mountain Fire. “Fire has been a natural part of our ecosystem, and given our changes in climate, we’re losing more and more of our acreage to catastrophic changes and fire.”

Road closures caused by the Labor Mountain Fire

Drivers seeking alternate routes for cross-state travel are advised to use U.S. 2 over Stevens Pass or Interstate 90 through Snoqualmie Pass and Vantage.

Communications Manager for the Washington State Department of Transportation’s North Central Region, Lauren Loebsack, cautioned that traffic delays are likely, especially near the Vantage Bridge, where construction has reduced lanes to one in each direction.

“Plan ahead, understand that travel times are going to be longer than expected,” Loebsack said. “We’re really also asking people to be fire-wise out on the roadway. Both Snoqualmie Pass and Stevens Pass have had short closures due to brush fires alongside the road.”

Extended closures like this are rare for Blewett Pass.

“We’re all in it together now,” Loebsack said. “We don’t want to reduce another cross-state travel option with the pressure already of the US 97 Blewett closure.”

Loebsack also urged travelers to rely on official sources for road conditions.

“Third-party travel direction apps might be sending people in the wrong directions,” she said.

She advises drivers to use the WSDOT real-time travel map or the WSDOT app.

“That is us putting up what we know to be the best, you know, traffic conditions at that moment,” Loebsack said.

Frank Lenzi is the News Director for KIRO Newsradio. Read more of his stories here.

Follow @FrankLenziKIRO