Carlton Complex fire burning area larger than cities of Seattle, Tacoma and Bellevue combined

Courtesy InciWeb



WENATCHEE, Wash. -- Getting an accurate estimation of the size of a fire can be difficult because it is constantly moving and changing.

Friday afternoon Washington Governor Jay Inslee said the Carlton Complex Fire burning in north central Washington had grown to 168,731 acres.

That is 263.61 square miles.

But how big is that really?

By comparison the city of Seattle covers 142.5 square miles.

The city of Tacoma stretches 62.34 square miles.

The city of Bellevue encompasses 36.47 square miles.

Collectively that is 241.31 square miles of land.

The Carlton Complex Fire covers more land that the cities of Seattle, Tacoma and Bellevue combined.

Only one other wildfire in Washington State history is comparable in size to this fire.  The Tripod Complex fire that burned in Okanogan County in 2006 scored 175,000 acres.

The next largest wildfire in state history was the Columbia Complex Fire which also burned in 2006.  That fire stretched some 107,000 acres.