Wildfire fighting strategy: Why some fires are left to burn, and what it means for air quality

Air quality has improved in Puget Sound, but air quality alerts remain in play as wildfires around the state continue to spew smoke into the air.

At points this weekend, air quality in Seattle ranked among the worst in the world.

"This is the worst it’s ever been for me," said Emily Gifford. ‘I’m from Australia, so I went through those fires over there, but I didn’t think it was as bad as it is right now – but we’re really close to these fires too, where we live."

Smoke has changed the perspective of many who live close to wildfires that have stretched into mid-October this season. However, the concern expanded when that haze and smoke started affecting a larger scale of people this week.

Winds typically blows west to east near Puget Sound, but this week, a wind from the east has spewed smoke from the Bolt Creek Fire into the area. Other fires around the state are contributing as well, but the decision to attack Bolt Creek with a "consumptive strategy" – or allowing the fire to burn in interior pockets – has left people facing smoke asking questions.

George Geissler, the Washington State Forester who is in charge of Washington Department of Natural Resources' wildfire strategy, said he’s been hearing questions about why more aircraft haven’t been put on the Bolt Creek Fire – especially after a weekend of haze, and smoke.

"Over the weekend there was so much smoke and so much wind that at times we couldn’t use aircraft effectively so we kept them on the ground," said Geissler.

As bad as smoke can be for people to inhale, it can make dropping water on a fire from above dangerous. In other cases, they are calculating which fires are in the greatest need of air support – based on what crews are available, which fires are threatening homes, and what assets are needed for new fires.

As for why the state’s strategy involves allowing parts of the fire to burn – including the Wild Sky Wilderness – there are several factors: terrain, the safety of both firefighters and pilots and it creates a buffer in the area in the case of future wildfire risk.

According to Geissler, they are required to engage the fire on state and private lands – though fire on federal lands have different rules: if a wildfire is burning in an area that meets specific objectives they can treat it like a ‘prescribed burn.’

While the Bolt Creek Fire isn’t the only fire causing smoke, it is drawing the most attention – a major issue right now is that large trees are serving as fuels. Those fuels are burning hot, and aren’t disappearing anytime soon. Add in steep terrain where rocks can overheat, expand then retract – and you get hazards of falling boulders.

At this stage, the fire has burned more than 14,000 acres. Crews have been able to gain 41% containment, though Geissler said a fire that size will require several inches of rain over the course of days.

"We may have it contained, but it would take more water and more personnel than we’d ever have available to use to get it completely out," he said. "That’s where Mother Nature comes into play."

If there’s a silver lining to the Bolt Creek Fire, it’s that it’s doing good work for the landscape. It’s not eliminating tens of thousands of acres of timber like larger fires, instead, it’s burning the ‘understory.’ Though, it also makes an assault on the fire more difficult.

The current forecast has rain in the outlook, which could be helpful both in terms of smoke and tampering down fires in our area. However, Geissler has also cautioned that he’s not seen anything yet that ensures the fires will be put out, or that the dry conditions won’t return quickly.

It’s a familiar issue for Washington state – wildfire season has become a year of wildfires. Geissler now specifically differentiates the "season" within a fire year, noting they’ve started fighting fires as early as March, and had a fire season in recent memory where they battled fires all 12 months.

"Climate change is probably exacerbating that, and we’re seeing more potential for fires, we’ve already been having early starts in our summer fire season, and they’re going much later."