The wildfire season is ending in Washington State. Commissioner of Public Lands Dave Upthegrove says it was a slow start, but more than 1,800 ignitions burned more than 250,000 acres across the state. He says firefighters succeeded in the goal for the year was to keep more than 90% of fires on public lands below ten acres. He says it’s a “testament to the excellent work of our firefighters”.
Locally in Washington, Asotin County Fire District Chief Noel Hardin says there were three large wildland fires in Asotin County and another one that started in vegetation and then burned a mobile home off Elm Street, but overall it was below average.
“We had some significant fires, but we were able to get on them with air support and able to have them out by the end of the day. So we were able to keep overall acreage low to what we lost this summer.”
Commissioner Upthegrove says his top priority going forward is “restoring full funding” to wildfire prevention and forest resilience programs.
