Washington’s wildfire seasons are arriving earlier, and that’s probably not good news for anyone hoping to avoid a repeat of the sun-choking smoke that has afflicted Seattle and much of the rest of the state for the last couple of summers. So what’s being done to prepare for and contain the blazes? On Episode 107 of The Overcast, The Seattle Times news and politics podcast, we put those questions to state Commissioner of Public Lands Hilary Franz, the elected official who manages state forestland and wildfire-fighting efforts.
She offers a somewhat grim prognosis for the 2019 wildfire season, starting with the fact that it has already begun — with 54 fires breaking out during a single week in March.
“We’ve never had 54 fires in the second week of March — 53 of them west of the Cascades,” Franz says. The blazes hit in Southwest Washington, with one leading to the evacuation of more than 100 homes in Cowlitz County.