Cooler weather not lowering fire risk in state

LYNNWOOD, Wash. -- The busy fire season has firefighters working overtime all across the region.

The weather is so dry out there fires are starting in unpredictable ways.

The Lynnwood Fire Department mopped up a quick-moving grass fire at Meadowdale Neighborhood Park over the weekend; fireworks likely sparked the flames.

Neighbors Joe and Aida Baygua watched it all happen.

“It’s kind of scary,” said Aida, “Because we are very close.”

The multiple fire calls and the hot, dry weather is taking its toll on firefighters.

“We’re going on a lot of wild grass fire calls,” said Lynnwood Fire Chief Scott Cockrum. “We always have them along the freeway, now they’re in other areas out in our community also.”

It has already been a busy summer for firefighters west of the Cascades.

East Side Fire and Rescue crews battled 100-degree temperatures near North Bend to knock down a brush fire on Sunday.

Also over the weekend, firefighters in Kitsap County said a driver parked their vehicle on dead grass, and the radiant heat from the undercarriage sparked the fire that destroyed the car.

It’s just one more example of how everything around us is ready to burn.

“Each time the humidity doesn’t recover fully, that grass or shrub dies that much more,” said Cockrum. “We’re not out of the woods -- I think (it's) the first time in history we have a fire in Washington in the rain forest -- and so our concern level is significant.”

Small amounts of precipitation are in the forecast but the fire danger remains until heavy, soaking rains arrive in the fall.