The air quality index set up by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration states anything ranked between 0 and 50 is “good” quality air.
With smoke from the nearby Goat Rocks Fire settling into the valley, the air in Packwood on Friday night stood at a 193, deemed “very unhealthy,” according to the index, as an air quality alert was put in place until midnight Saturday.
According to Ross McDowell with the Lewis County Division of Emergency Management, during alerts like these, residents should avoid going outside unless it’s absolutely necessary, especially sensitive individuals such as people with asthma.
With the fire reaching 5,040 acres by Monday morning, areas northeast of Butter Creek and north of U.S. Highway 12, including the Lower Timberline and Goat Rocks neighborhoods, are still at “be ready” evacuation status due to the fire while the Upper Timberline neighborhood remains at “be set” evacuation status. A new incident
command team took control of the fire on Saturday with personnel totaling 205. The blaze was started by lightning in early August.
With warm and dry weather recently, a news release over the weekend stated the fire has seen growth around 100 to 150 acres per day, but that it has mostly been closing in on itself where fingers of flames were already extended.
According to the release, a drone pilot attempted to violate the temporary flight restriction over the fire area, which is a federal offense and causes firefighting aircraft to stay grounded to avoid collisions, which can allow wildfires to grow.
“Remember, if you fly, we can’t,” stated the release.
Before the leadership change, officials gave an update on the incident in Packwood Friday night with mostly positive news, including that the fire has held behind the “layers and layers of contingencies” set in place between the blaze and the nearest neighborhood of Upper Timberline, according August Isernhagen, field operations manager. Those contingencies include dozer lines and hoses. However, the smoke, they said, is not likely to lessen until after the area sees more precipitation.
Isernhagen added the smoke looks a lot worse from the town than it does from the fire lines.
Packwood fire chief Lonnie Goble said he flew over the fire recently and was encouraged by what he saw, roughly estimating that in the over 4,600 acres of forest land affected by the fire, only about 30 acres of trees had burned, with the majority of the flames hitting fuel on the ground.
“The smoke’s gonna be here a long time. So we’re gonna have to get used to it,” Goble said. “The biggest majority of the fire is away from Timberline, but there is still the possibility of a small threat. What the people that's been working on the fire lines have done in the Upper Timberline is amazing. I mean, there were like six different defenses when you flew over it. … It’s unreal. They’re doing a hell of a job.”
Goble added the fire is unlikely to subside until “after the snow flies,” but officials noted that with the small percentage of trees burning, it will increase the resiliency of the landscape and make the forests near the community more fire resistant for generations.
Over 50 people went to Friday’s meeting and at least 175 attendees viewed the update on Facebook. The most notable of the good news shared was that despite working with rapidly falling trees at times, no firefighters have been killed or seriously injured during the process of fighting the Goat Rocks Fire.
To receive alerts from Lewis County in the case of an emergency, sign up at https://bit.ly/LewisCountyAlerts.
For road and trail closures in the Gifford Pinchot National Forest, visit https://bit.ly/GoatRocksClosureOrder.
