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Wildfire near Oso grows to 130 acres

Crews are battling a wildfire in the Oso-Arlington area that grew to more than 100 acres on Friday,

Key developments:

  • Fire grew to more than 100 acres overnight
  • No homes in danger 
  • Fire started in area that was being logged
  • 150 felled trees per acre on the ground
  • Plan is to contain it to a flat, 250 to 300-acre area 
  • DNR firefighters leading effort

The fire off Highway 530 started at about 6 p.m. Thursday. It is about six miles from the area that was wiped out by a massive landslide in 2014.

PHOTOS: Growing wildfire burning near Oso

According to fire officials, there was a logging operation earlier in the day that may have started the fire.

They said the cause is under investigation, but the area has been logged for about a month and the line of fire followed the path where logs were being dragged up the hill.

A Sedro Woolley company called The Pulley Corporation is logging it.

The Washington State Department of Natural Resources officials said the fire, named "Hotshot," had burned about 55 acres by Thursday night.  Firefighters let the fire burn and monitored it overnight. As of Friday morning, the fire had burned more than 100 acres.

A team from the DNR is leading the operation Friday and two helicopters have been making water drops. Up to 50 members of a national DNR team will be fighting the fire.

The cause of the blaze, referred to as the Hot Shot fire, is still under investigation.

Image of water drop over "Hot Shot" fire.

The fire is burning on a south-facing slope above some homes, but fire officials believe crews can stop the fire from reaching them.

No homes are in immediate danger.

Nneighbors say their saving grace is the fact the grass is so green and tall — they haven’t even been able to mow yet.

But there is plenty of fuel for the fire. Because it's burning at a site where timber is being harvested, there are about 150 trees per acre that have been felled. The fire is burning through those trees, officials say, but slowly.

Though winds died down overnight, crews are concerned that they will pick up again Friday afternoon, when temperatures will be the hottest this week.

Listed are additional concerns:

  • A high of 89 is forecast for Oso with east winds of 9 to 11 mph.
  • State DNR assistant region manager Jay Guthrie said Friday's goal was to box in the fire within a flat, 250 -to 300-acre area and hold it there.
  • The Oso fire chief said there is also concern over a piece of logging equipment at the top of the hill that is worth $1 million.

No injuries have been reported.

The DNR said it's rare for this type of a fire to be burning already at this time of year. Last year fires burned more than a million acres in Washington and the worst ones didn't happen until August.

Below is an interactive map where you can see the current wildfire and history of wildfires.

Cox Media Group

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