GRAHAM, Wash. — Fires in the Graham and Auburn area burned outbuildings and sent large plumes of smoke into the sky on Monday. Multiple departments responded to both fires.
A brush fire near 164th Avenue SE and SE 311th Street just east of Pacific Raceways in Auburn had burned a shed and vehicle trailer.
That fire has burned an estimated five acres and power was turned off to transmission lines in the area as a precaution.
A public information officer for Mountainview Fire District, Eric Autry, said he expects that firefighters will work late into the evening to put out any hotspots remaining at the site of the brush fire.
"Right now, we're in kind of the mop-up phase," said Autry.
Concerned homeowners living nearby said they were thanking their lucky stars it wasn’t a windy day. The massive presence of fire trucks and billowing smoke had them on high alert.
"You see a fire truck from Redmond, you know it's pretty bad," said a neighbor named Randall Karstetter.
Karstetter lives along the fringes of the Monday afternoon fire, which took place on one family's property.
"They have a large stand of bamboo, and that bamboo somehow caught on fire, and it just erupted into big flames," said Karstetter.
The exact cause has not yet been determined, according to Autry.
“We had a long stretch of dry weather, we’re not used to that here,” said Autry.
Fire crews hope this serves as a reminder to have an evacuation plan and pack a go-bag in case a situation like this were to ever get worse and threaten homes.
The fire in Graham was burning near 50th Avenue E and 260th Street E, which is still closed to through traffic. The fire was 100% contained after burning five to six acres, including two garages and other buildings in addition to grass.
Fire officials said no one was injured or displaced by the fire. A total of 28 units responded from three departments -- Graham, Central Pierce and Orting Valley.
As it burned, fire officials warned those nearby to avoid exposure to the smoke by staying indoors and keeping windows and doors closed.