Just days before a series of deadly, record-setting wildfires began exploding across Washington, the acting chief pilot for the state’s wildfire-attack helicopters wrote a letter to his superiors. Unfilled pilot positions were grounding some helicopters, John Adolphson wrote to senior staff at the state Department of Natural Resources (DNR). Of the agency’s eight helicopters, “Right now we can only fly between 4-5 DNR helicopters because we don’t have the pilots,” Adolphson wrote in a letter sent Aug. 11 and obtained by The Seattle Times. Adolphson argued low pay was making it hard to recruit pilots, and the state should spend some of the money it uses to contract for additional helicopters to beef up its own staff. Whether the shortage hampered the summer’s wildfire battle isn’t easy to gauge, but the concerns come as national, state and local firefighting resources have been outstripped by the unprecedented blazes. And in the long term, wildfires in the state are projected to worsen due to climate change, forestland littered with fuel and more homes in and around wildland areas. DNR representatives say the agency is trying to recruit pilots nationally and there are some possible job candidates, but four of the agency’s 12 pilot positions are currently unfilled.