Enumclaw fire under control

The Fish Fire is 100 percent lined, 30 percent contained, and is even shrinking.

The weekend saw some good news for firefighters tackling the Enumclaw Fish Fire.

The fire began the morning of Sept. 8, and the Washington state Department of Transportation quickly closed state Route 410 around milepost 30, near the Mud Mountain Dam Recreation Area entrance.

The fire spread quickly — reported as just six to 10 acres large on Sept. 8, it grew to an estimated 150 acres by the following day. As of the morning of Sept. 14, the fire shrunk to 141 acres, was 30 percent contained, and is 100 percent lined, said Thomas Kyle-Milward, wildfire communications manager with the Department of Natural Resources.

“It’s looking really good out there,” Kyle-Milward said.

When the fire first started, Firefighters from Enumclaw, Greenwater Fire Department, Puget Sound Regional Fire Authority, Buckley Fire Department, Washington Department of Natural Resources (DNR), and the US Forest Service were on scene. However, by Sept. 10, DNR had taken over the fire, given Enumclaw firefighters a break.

But that didn’t mean DNR wasn’t taking the situation seriously: “The strategy that we’re currently employing is that when we see that there’s a fire we believe is close to being taken off the map, to aggressively go after it so that frees up resources from that fire that can go elsewhere,” Kyle-Milward said. “We’ve identified Fish as one of those scenarios.”

This fire is called the “Fish Fire” because “there is a fish drop site nearby where hatcheries release fish into the river,” Kyle-Milward continued, adding that fires are often named after something in their geographical proximity.

As some firefighters man the fire lines, others were taking care of timber that has fallen across SR 410 in order to open the highway in the near future, though it’s unclear when, exactly, that would be.

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