Subject: [Tweeters] current closures due to fires, WA state
Date: Jul 19 13:10:07 2007
From: Wayne Weber - contopus at telus.net


Brad,

First of all, you should be aware that, in general, responsibility for
reporting and fighting wildfires rests with the landowner. The Washington
DNR owns about 5 million acres, or only about 11% of land in the state.
Their website indicates that they have the major firefighting responsibility
on 12.7 million acres, which is still less than 30% of the state. However,
huge areas of Washington are owned by federal agencies (Forest Service, BLM,
National Parks, etc.) which have the main responsibility for dealing with
wildfires on their lands, and huge areas are also owned privately.

As regards current information on wildfires-- there are several interagency
task groups and websites which provide information on wildfires. The best
ones are NIFC (The National Interagency Fire Center) whose webpage on
current large fires is at http://www.nifc.gov/fire_info/nfn.htm .
This webpage gives information on all large wildfires (100 acres or more)
over the entire country, and is updated daily. INCIWEB
(http://www.inciweb.org/ ) gives similar information, but in greater detail,
with links to websites about individual fires, and in some cases includes
fires of less than 100 acres.

The Northwest Interagency Coordinating Center (NWCC), mentioned by Caren in
her response, also has a map on their website showing locations of current
large fires http://www.nwccweb.us/information/firemap.asp . This agency and
its website cover only Washington and Oregon.

There are links to the first two of these 3 websites from the DNR webpage
that you posted.

Because of the hodge-podge of land ownership in Washington (and most other
Western states), and fire-fighting responsibilities that are shared among
several agencies, there is no one website which gives complete information
about current wildfires and related road closures in Washington.
(Keep in mind, also, that situations can change dramatically within a few
hours.) However, the 3 websites cited above are probably the most useful
ones in alerting travellers to current locations and possible hazards from
wildfires.

Wayne C. Weber
Delta, BC
contopus at telus.net



-----Original Message-----
From: tweeters-bounces at mailman1.u.washington.edu
[mailto:tweeters-bounces at mailman1.u.washington.edu] On Behalf Of BRAD
YONEOKA
Sent: July-19-07 11:29 AM
To: tweeters at u.washington.edu
Cc: fireinformation at dnr.wa.gov
Subject: [Tweeters] current closures due to fires, WA state

the DNR or dept of natural resources is our state fire department. it's web

site lists closures due to current fires. see:

http://www.dnr.wa.gov/fire/

unfortunately, the listing of fires is nowhere near as complete as a read of

the post-season annual fire summary [see for ex the 2005 summary].

to report a forest fire, call: 800-562-6010.

one wishes that the government DNR would post on its web site real-time
location of current fires as the private WTA does for trail closures and
washouts. this would be invaluable to birders and hikers.

regards,
brad yoneoka


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