Crews have wrapped up fires near Gold Bar and Oso that started last week, but are advising people to still avoid the sites of those blazes.
Update, Wednesday, May 18:
Both the Proctor Creek and Hot Shot fires are completely contained and suppression efforts will end Wednesday evening, according to a news release from the incident-management team assigned to the fire.
The Washington State Department of Natural Resources will continue to monitor the fires’ footprints. The interior of the fire might smolder occasionally, according to the news release.
It’s best to avoid the fire sites, because there are still dangers like weakened trees that could fall and logs that could break free and roll, according to the news release.
Original post:
Continued cool weather after a damp weekend brought success to fire crews working on the Proctor Creek fire, near Gold Bar, which was declared 100 percent contained on Tuesday morning, according to a spokesman for the crews battling two Snohomish County fires.
Spokesman Randall Shepard said the Proctor Creek fire was estimated to have burned 289 acres, down from the projection on Monday of more than 350 acres.
The Hot Shot fire, near Oso, was listed Tuesday morning as being 75 percent contained. It is estimated to have burned about 67 acres, Shepard said.
At the Hot Shot fire, crews established containment lines on the west and east flanks of the fire on Monday and were working Tuesday to mop up the fire within the new containment lines, Shepard said.
“Today’s weather is expected to bring a brief break in the rain with slightly warmer temperatures before precipitation returns tomorrow,” Shepard said in a newsletter released Tuesday.
Fire crews’ current objectives are to widen the buffer around the Proctor Creek fire to decrease the risk of a later fire escape, to repair sections of the containment line and to “complete the one-hundred-foot mop up buffer on the east and west flanks” of the Hot Shot fire, Shepard said.
Shepard said on Monday that the weekend’s cool weather and sprinkling of rain helped get the fire knocked down.
High temperatures and dry conditions had the state concerned about the two fires late last week. Shepard is part of a Type-2 incident management team, which usually responds to larger, explosive fires. Those teams are usually in high demand during the peak of wildfire season. Shepard said the state Department of Natural Resources (DNR) requested the team when it looked like the fire had the potential to grow quickly in unusually dry conditions.