Mike Burnett thinks his fire department is well-positioned to fight wildfires this summer.
The chief of Chelan County Fire District 1 has made some upper-level staffing changes, gotten the fire district’s helicopter up and flying earlier than last year, and has fire district employees out canvassing neighborhoods next to wild lands so they can tell homeowners how to make their homes more fire resistant. He has also brought two Kittitas County fire districts on board as firefighting partners in case of a major wildfire.
This doesn’t mean he is not worried.
“We have limited resources and a huge fire danger,” he said. While the temperatures so far this summer have been lower than last year, the dry, flashy fuels are still drying out and, with a lightning strike or a thoughtless person tossing a cigarette, “conditions are receptive to ignitions,” he said.
Burnett reviewed the status of the department at the anniversary of the Sleepy Hollow Fire. On June 28, 2015, that fire destroyed 30 homes, mostly in the Broadview subdivision, and sent embers flying two miles away where four commercial buildings were either damaged or destroyed.
“That fire has shortened my career,” Burnett said. He does not intend to continue as fire chief after his contract expires in 2019.