Fires ravaged the Northwest during yet another record fire season in both Oregon and Washington. Overall, it cost the Department of Natural Resources (and possibly other agencies) more than $560 million total to put out fires in both states.
Washington got it the worst, with over 1 million acres burning throughout the summer. What surprised the DNR the most though, was of the 1,500 fires they dealt with during fire season, 2/3 of them were human caused.
We talked to Janet Pearce from the Department of Natural Resources Wednesday afternoon on the phone. She says they are asking for more money from the legislature to try to break the cycle of record breaking fires.
"Every year, I hear firefighters say, 'Man I've never seen it run like that before,'" Pearce said. "It's getting scarier but if we all come together and we've got to come up with more solutions together to make it a better and safer to live."
During the height of the fire season, 11,450 firefighters were actively working the front lines in the Northwest.
Pearce also said our region could use a lot of help from winter the next couple months. They're hoping we get a lot more snow pack than we've had the last couple years.