7/29/2015 Paradise Fire Update

Paradise Fire Update

Wednesday, July 29, 2015

(360) 797-5366

The forecast for the fire area today is extremely hot and extremely dry.  This will be the first time since last weekend's rain that the combination of high temperatures and very low predicted relative humidity will combine and may result in active burning within the fire area and along the edges.  There is a chance that smoke may start to be noticeable again in parts of the Olympic Peninsula.     

A new smoke monitoring station was installed in Forks, to replace one that stopped working.  The picture above shows the equipment installation on Monday.  Since the Paradise Fire is expected to burn actively off and on over the summer, providing information to residents about smoke levels is one aspect of meeting the first objective of fire managers:  Ensuring firefighter and public safety.  Detailed information about air quality, wildfire smoke impacts on health, some smoke modeling tools, and guidelines for considering whether to modify activity, can be found online at www.wasmoke.blogspot.com.  The "Smoke and Health" tab is particularly useful.  Washington Department of Health has details in both English and Spanish.  

A new infrared flight last night showed the fire has only grown 5 acres since July 19.  There is still scattered heat throughout the fire.  The infrared detected some isolated heat slightly west of the fire edge.  Fireline personnel are evaluating how to safely scout and size up that location this morning.  Their actions will be based on whether they can take suppression actions without compromising personal safety.

The Olympic National Park and the surrounding area has burn bans, restrictions and closures in place.  Check on the following links http://www.nps.gov/olym/index.htm  Area burn bans: www.waburnbans.net

For real time information, visit our Facebook page at: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Paradise-Fire/831205013596015. Basic information is also available on Inciweb at http://inciweb.nwcg.gov/incident/4305/.  

For current information about visiting Olympic National Park, as well as information about the history and role of fire in the Olympic ecosystem, please visit the park's website at http://www.nps.gov/olym.