Fires banned throughout Mt. Rainier National Park

The fire ban follows similar bans on adjacent state and U.S. Forest Service lands.

The following is from a press release issued by the National Park Service.

Mount Rainier National Park has implement a parkwide fire ban for all campfires and the ignition of wood, briquettes, or any fuel in fire pits, fire pans, and barbecue grills. The ruling took effect last Friday, July 23, and will remain until rescinded.

This brings the park in alignment with fire bans on adjacent state and U.S. Forest Service lands. These bans are in place to reduce the risk of human-caused wildland fires during hot, dry conditions and high fire danger.

The fire ban supports national incident management efforts by reducing the risk of wildland fire on park lands and the subsequent need to draw from limited firefighting resources. The nation is currently at Fire Preparedness Level 5, the highest level of wildland fire activity. Several geographic areas are experiencing large, complex wildland fire incidents, which have the potential to exhaust national wildland firefighting resources. At least 80 percent of the country’s incident management teams and wildland firefighting personnel are committed to fire incidents.

Use of portable, petroleum-filled cooking stoves, heating devices, and/or lanterns using liquefied or bottled fuel are permissible provided such devices can be turned off.

Discharging, or using any kind of fireworks, tracer ammunition or other incendiary devices in any location on federal lands is always prohibited.

Anyone observing smoke or flames inside the park or on nearby lands, is asked to dial 911 or notify a ranger.