North Kitsap Fire and Rescue Fire Chief Dan Smith's phone started ringing about 3 a.m. Sept. 8. Wildfires were leaping across Washington, and Smith, a regional coordinator for a fire defense committee that helps mobilize firefighters across the state for the biggest blazes, went to work early that day to call in backup for Sumner and Graham in Pierce County.
As he learned more about the fires ripping through hundreds of acres and spurring evacuations in a Puget Sound community, he thought about how the blazes were inching ever closer to his home district.
"Fires traditionally are an eastside problem, but in the last few years they've become a westside problem," he said of Washington's two halves. "Who would've thought you could burn 500 acres in Sumner?"
The conclusion for Smith, a veteran firefighter since 1981, is that residents here must adjust to the reality that wildfire is absolutely possible on the peninsula.
"It could happen anywhere in Kitsap," he said.
The brutal 2020 wildfire season has burned an area the size of New Jersey across the west, taking at least 34 lives in Washington, Oregon and California and choking this coast in smoke. The nearly 200,000-acre Beachie Creek fire west of Salem, Oregon, that state's biggest, had burned down about 470 homes as of Wednesday, according to the Statesman Journal.
And Kitsap County didn't completely escape the fires that surged on Labor Day, especially its south end. In rapid succession, three blazes began about the time Smith was getting that first phone call. A home was destroyed off Phillips Road, and two brush fires, in the 11800 block of Banner Road and the 10200 block of Orchard Avenue, led to evacuations of several more. Quick response saved them, according to Guy Dalrymple, deputy chief of emergency services for South Kitsap Fire and Rescue.
"It was a crazy 24 hours," said Dalrymple, who noted that crews ran to some 70 calls instead of a normal average of about 30. "We were all over the place."
A brush fire in Bainbridge's Fletcher Bay area Sept. 10 also led to a fire contained at half an acre, one that threatened two homes. A pilot had spotted the flames and, with the help of an Airlift Northwest helicopter, crews located and put out the flames. An improperly extinguished campfire was to blame, according to Deputy Chief Jared Moravec.
"The fire certainly had a lot of potential to grow, and as with any brush fire on Bainbridge, we're going to have homes in proximity," he said. "Thankfully, we didn't have a lot of wind. If we would have, the result of that fire could've been a lot different."
Underbrush, dry conditions to blame
The brush fires in South Kitsap, meanwhile, were caused by trees that fell into power lines, sparking dry underbrush that burned quickly. Dalrymple applauded residents in the area who had established buffers between nature and their homes and those who had worked to clear out flammable underbrush.
"When you let leaves and brush pile up, it's fuel for a fire," he said.
That underbrush is one ingredient in a witch's brew that caused one of the Pacific Northwest's worst wildfire seasons. The "wet side" of the Cascades, including Kitsap, is becoming ever drier. The Northern Hemisphere, for example, just recorded its hottest summer on record, with the five warmest Augusts occurring since 2015, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
"If you lengthen the time of that drought then you lengthen the fire season," said Maureen C. Kennedy, an assistant professor who studies wildfire science at the University of Washington Tacoma campus.
Then, on Labor Day, a rare easterly wind began to blow, taking down trees like those in South Kitsap and enlarging existing fires like the ones in Oregon.
Kennedy noted the holiday was also a time when people were enjoying natural lands. Even a backfiring car can provide the spark that can result in a dangerous wildfire.
Kitsap's forests' vulnerability
For the first time in more than 15 years, those conditions spurred Craig and Nicole Ueland, owners of the 2,200-acre tree farm just west of Kitsap Lake, to temporarily close public access there until "significant rainfall" returns.
Mark Mauren, property manager for Ueland Tree Farm, pointed to Western Hemlock, which is showing signs of stress and rot as a result of longer periods between rains.
To combat it, Mauren said logging now occurs in small sections around 6 to 15 acres spread out among the forest. Clear-cut areas and underbrush can lead to fast-spreading fires but are often thwarted, or at least slowed, by larger tree stands, he said.
The Uelands also conduct tree thinning, cut wider roadsides throughout the farm to maintain fire lines, and remain vigilant in spotting any fires that do spark.
That's a strategy increasingly being called for in the wake of the wildfires. There was a time when natural fires might've eaten away that underbrush. Native Americans started fires to create savannas to attract game migrations, for instance.
But that began to change in the 20th century. Following the Big Burn of 1910, a fire that blazed across 3 million acres and killed 87 people, the government's strategy toward fire moved in favor of suppression at any cost. There's a new push toward the idea that natural burns could help.
"Will we tolerate a little bit of smoke now or weeks and weeks of hazardous smoke air quality later?" Kennedy said.
Also a problem in Kitsap: many residents live here in part because of the proximity to the Pacific Northwest's grand treasures, its conifers. But the closer to the conifers we are, the more the fire danger increases. As of 2015, records from the Washington Department of Natural Resources showed Kitsap was averaging more than one fire per year that grows to at least five acres over the last 25 years.
Kitsap's biggest burn: 'the situation was extremely dangerous'
But Kitsap has been relatively unscathed, save for a few larger wildfires that did cause panic in their time. Likely the biggest of those was a blaze that began in the Bremerton watershed in July 1938, according to state archives.
In less than 10 hours the fire, rumored to be an arson, enveloped 800 acres of logged-off timberland and 700,000 feet of cut and stacked timber. Harry Curl, then-assistant district state fire warden, worried it could also attack a town.
"He said the situation was extremely dangerous, especially if the wind continued toward Bremerton," the Associated Press reported in a July 30, 1938, article.
At least 10 families were evacuated from areas near the old Navy Yard Road. The New Deal-funded Civilian Conservation Corps established a temporary camp at Bear Creek. A fire line, built by three bulldozers, established a perimeter around the sweeping blaze.
Three pumps, a 1,000-gallon street-flushing tank, and up to 750 firefighters fought the flames. Even Navy sailors were on standby in case the fire moved closer to Bremerton. But light rain finally stopped the inferno, according to state archives.
Today, a force of firefighters in Kitsap, bonded legally through mutual and automatic aid agreements, takes on flames and firestorms of any size. But districts in Kitsap are also grappling with a yearly season of blazes up and down the West Coast that pulls them to duty during their offtime. Smith, North Kitsap's chief, said residents needn't worry about response; staffing at home won't decline. But it does fatigue existing crews given the additional stress and strain.
"We don't brown out fire stations," Smith said. "It still puts a huge strain on our organization."
Smith said he's confident the area's fire districts will continue being robust front lines of defense in Kitsap, even as the fire risk grows. But the firefighters need some help.
"From a fire service perspective, I think we're prepared to engage those fires," he said. "What we need to do is get people prepared for them, too."
Josh Farley is a reporter covering the military for the Kitsap Sun. He can be reached at 360-792-9227, josh.farley@kitsapsun.com or on Twitter at @joshfarley.
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Northwest's new wildfire danger: 'It could happen anywhere in Kitsap' - Kitsap Sun
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