STARTUP, Snohomish County — Fire crews worked to protect homes west of Stevens Pass on Sunday, as a major wildfire raged uncontained and an evacuation order remained in place for hundreds of homes.
The Bolt Creek fire ignited early Saturday morning, spreading rapidly to 7,600 acres by Sunday, prompting evacuations around the small town of Index in the western Cascade Mountain foothills.
The posture for fire crews was largely defensive, as officials said the late-summer blaze threatened hundreds of homes and other structures, but had only damaged one outbuilding as of Sunday. No injuries or deaths were reported.
Peter Mongillo, a spokesperson for Snohomish Regional Fire and Rescue, said some 500 firefighters battled the fire over the course of Sunday. He said crews have used helicopters to drop water but haven't brought in planes that carry fire-retardant chemicals because windy conditions make such flights more dangerous.
An 18-mile stretch of Highway 2 remained closed between east of Gold Bar and Skykomish, with no estimate for reopening. The fire burning in steep and rugged terrain was 0% contained as of Sunday evening.
Many residents of Index and nearby communities left their homes to stay with friends or family or stop by evacuation centers staffed by the Red Cross and other volunteers.
Virginia and Jay Held arrived Sunday morning at an evacuation center in the town of Startup, carrying more passengers than one might expect from wildfire evacuees.
Eleven chickens — including several chicks — rustled restlessly in the back of their station wagon as it rolled into the parking lot on a flat tire.
"We call it a Ford Coop," Jay Held said as a friend helped replace the tire. "This is our mobile chicken evac unit."
On Sunday morning, the couple had returned to their home along Mount Index River Road — a small community across the river from Index — only to find the power shut off soon after they arrived.
While they didn't receive an evacuation order, their neighbors across the river did. That, along with the dystopian orange sun shrouded by an unceasing tarp of ashy smoke, was reason enough to get out.
"We just have to leave everything out there and hope the fire doesn't make it that far," Virginia Held said. The couple brought with them tools, a generator and enough supplies to last them several days. "That's what we're doing," she said. "Playing the waiting game."
The mandatory Level 3 evacuation order is in place for an area stretching from Index to Skykomish, covering about 500 structures, according to Mongillo of Snohomish Fire and Rescue.
The Snohomish County Sheriff's Office said Sunday that only about half of those in the evacuation zone had left the area. "We ask that they reconsider. The fire remains active. We need everybody's help protecting lives today," the department said in a tweet.
A Level 2 evacuation was in place for the area to the immediate west, between Index and Zeke's Drive-In, meaning people should be prepared to leave immediately. A Level 1 evacuation was in place for Gold Bar, meaning residents should be ready to evacuate if conditions worsen.
Jim Cahill, a spokesperson for the Department of Natural Resources, called the Bolt Creek fire an "unusually large fire for recent history in this area."
He said hot shot crews were moving in to scout out the terrain for areas where fire lines can be created, taking advantage of existing roads and trails as starting points.
"They're still moving forward with the focus on protecting structures, infrastructure, homes and public safety," he said.
Destructive wildfires and choking blankets of smoke have become an expected, if unwelcome, feature of summers across the Western U.S., exacerbated by droughts scientists predict will grow only as greenhouse gas emissions from cars, manufacturing and power plants stoke climate change.
The Bolt Creek fire is one of 19 large active wildfires burning in the Pacific Northwest, according to the Northwest Interagency Coordination Center. The Goat Rocks fire in Lewis County had burned more than 2,800 acres, spurred evacuations and closed both directions of Highway 12, according to the U.S. Forest Service and the state Department of Transportation.
Nationally, 92 large wildland fires have burned nearly 728,000 acres this year, mostly in northwestern states, according to the National Interagency Fire Center.
Smoke from the fires drifted into the Seattle area, causing what appeared to be one of the worst days for local air quality in two years, according to preliminary data from the Environmental Protection Agency. Air quality is also at unhealthy levels in the Tri-Cities, Spokane and Pullman areas because of wildfires in Idaho, Montana and Oregon.
Cooler weather is expected later this week, according to the National Weather Service, with light rain possible in the Seattle area.
Those temporarily displaced by the Bolt Creek fire were hoping the weather won't push the blaze any farther west.
Randy Ladowski, 34, and his girlfriend spent the night outside an evacuation center at the Evergreen State Fairgrounds in Monroe, in a homemade structure on his truck that included a bed, kitchen, composting toilet and solar panels.
Ladowski works as a rope access technician in Seattle but lives in Index. He was busy transferring his climbing and skiing gear from his car to the trailer Sunday morning.
Before evacuating, Ladowski said he took one final walk around town with his friends and neighbors.
"Everyone was kind of lighthearted," he said. "Then we started to realize this could be it."
Ladowski had just managed to sneak back into Index on Sunday morning to get his motorcycle and park it in Gold Bar.
"I took one lap around town on the bike and then was like, 'I gotta go. I'm going to start crying,' " he said.
