FEDERAL WAY, Wash. — In the last 24 hours there’s been a string of brush fires, and not just in one area.
KIRO 7 tracked fires from Federal Way all the way up to Marysville.
“Be proactive. Do what you can to prevent fires because it impacts everybody,” said Jennifer Martin.
Overnight on Wednesday, there were three brush fires.
At 11:45 p.m., Washington State Department of Transportation cameras captured flames running up the hillside along northbound Interstate 5 just before State Route 18 in Federal Way. The fire grew, and several trees caught fire.
About 20 minutes later, another brush fire burned along I-5 in Tukwila, not far from Southcenter Mall.
“It doesn’t take much for a brush fire to start now, in these dry conditions,” said Pat Pawlak, spokesperson for Puget Sound Regional Fire Authority.
Then around 1:30 a.m., another brush fire started in Everett along Highway 2. The blaze was fairly close to the freeway lanes.
“It is definitely attributed to the dry weather conditions we’ve had. We’ve had 33 days without any type of precipitation. We’ve had a little bit of precipitation, but now we’re back into dry weather,” said Pawlak.
On Tuesday, multiple brush fires broke out along the northbound lanes of I-5 in Marysville, scorching about five acres.
Chopper 7 was overhead as flames were dangerously close to several businesses.
“It’s that time of the year right now. We’re at the beginning of August, we haven’t seen a lot of rain so the grass is definitely dry in the median and on the shoulders right now,” said Martin.
Martin and fire officials ask everyone to be careful and vigilant, especially since we’re only halfway through the summer.
“I would say be fire safe, don’t throw your butts out the window. I’ve lived in the Northwest my entire life and I’ve seen the devastation of fires firsthand,” said Martin.
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