The damage caused by Washington’s increasingly devastating wildfires hasn’t gone unnoticed in Olympia.
Four bills passed this session will take effect next month to help state and local firefighters more effectively prevent and combat wildland fires. Although some funding remains uncertain, legislators hope better collaboration and more prevention efforts will avoid a repeat of the unprecedented wildfire seasons of 2014 and 2015, and perhaps this year.
“So many different times when we have a wildfire I know the state Department of Natural Resources does what it can,” said Sen. Judy Warnick, R-Moses Lake. “But over and over we’ve had people complain that maybe DNR could do more. So that’s what we’ve been working on, is making it easier and more beneficial, especially for our rural areas, to have more help.”