The Skagit County Board of Commissioners proclaimed May “Wildfire Awareness Month” after hearing from area wildfire experts.
“It’s a great time to start thinking about this before summer, when our months get warmer and our fire potential goes up,” local wildfire resilience coordinator Jenny Coe, who works for the Skagit and Whatcom conservation districts, told the commissioners Tuesday.
Coe was joined by other Skagit Conservation District staff and representatives of the Skagit County Fire Marshal’s Office and the state Department of Natural Resources’ northwest region firefighting team.
“In 2020, we had 65 classified fires in our region … and the average size was at 2.95 acres,” Natural Resources Fire Operations District Manager David Way said. “That’s not the great big huge fires we see in drier ecosystems like in Eastern Washington, but it is concerning knowing we have so many houses in these forested, rural areas of Skagit County.”