ROY, Wash. — Fire crews say a brush fire in South Pierce County that threatened crucial power lines exemplifies the importance of interagency collaboration, unified command and aircraft support.
South Pierce Fire Chief Todd Wernet says the agency responded to a fire Thursday afternoon in the 3800 block of 336th South. When it arrived, firefighters from the Washington Department of Natural Resources were already on the scene. DNR has worked to prepare crews in different areas around the state.
They, along with Graham Fire and Rescue, the Pierce County Sheriff's Department and Pierce County Department of Emergency Management, had enough resources to fight the fire, communicate evacuations and handle the scene -- something SPFR likely could not have done with its personnel alone. He says this fire is still under investigation but may have been sparked by fireworks.
In recent years, WADNR has also worked to enhance its available air resources, allowing it to reach remote areas more quickly and approach difficult-to-reach fires more directly.
"The aircraft are absolutely needed for difficult terrain, for the speed they can get in, and with all the lakes in the area they can continually do water drops until they get low on fuel," Wernet said. "We slowed it down using the helicopters. We had three helicopters doing water drops as well as the initial hand crews coming in, stopping it from getting into the tree line."
In addition, Wernet says the area has a Zone 6 Coordinator that helps to manage resources for southeast Pierce County. As soon as the call went out, additional agencies were ready to support the South Pierce region with any other fires that happened during the time they were handling the brush fire in the Roy area.
With all of that said, crews remain busy-- and firefighters ask everyone to take burn bans and fireworks restrictions seriously.
"Fireworks are still especially dangerous out here, especially when you have the dry weather, low precipitation," Wernet said. "You're looking for trouble when you do that. We've had multiple fires over the last week, people using fireworks, purposely shooting fireworks out of vehicles as they're driving down the road, it puts firefighters' lives in danger, it puts homes and animals in danger."
South Pierce Fire and Rescue, like a number of other fire agencies, is currently working to raise funds to keep their local resources in place. A vote on the General Levy Lid Lift will take place on August 1.