Sunday night’s winds make long day for crews batting Kelly Road Fire near Bellingham
A vegetation fire approximately six miles northeast of Bellingham has burned approximately 10 acres near the Mount Baker Highway since Sunday afternoon, but hasn’t caused any injuries or burned any structures.
The Kelly Road Fire, as the Washington State Department of Natural Resources has labeled it, was first reported to Whatcom County Fire District 1 at 3:53 p.m. April 18 near 3107 Mount Baker Highway, according to the PulsePoint app.
“We were there until about 8 or 9 (p.m.) and then turned it over to DNR,” District 1 Chief Mel Blankers told The Bellingham Herald Monday morning. “It would have been fine, but around midnight, the winds kicked up and it took back off again.”
District 1 crews were called back out to the fire, which is near the intersection of Kelly Road and the Mount Baker Highway, to assist DNR at 12:40 a.m. Monday, according to PulsePoint.
The winds, which Blankers estimated to be approximately 15 mph, blew embers across what amounted to a 50-foot fire line created by the Williams pipeline in the area, Blankers said. In doing so, he estimated the fire grew from approximately eight acres to 10 — mostly slash burn and stumps remaining from logging operations.
The southerly winds also made the need for trucks to protect two structures in the area, Blankers said, but those winds have since died down and the structures weren’t damaged.
Crews currently are working any remaining hot spots and have a couple of excavators in the area cutting fire lines in case afternoon winds return Monday afternoon.
“We have a lot of guys that have been up since yesterday working on this thing,” Blankers said. “A couple of guys are just working on caffeine right now.”
DNR had a helicopter on scene Sunday, but didn’t anticipate it would be needed Monday, spokesperson Janet Pearce told The Herald.
The cause of the fire has not yet been determined, Blankers and Pearce said, but both indicated the recent warm, dry weather played a hand in its spread.
Temperatures at Bellingham International Airport reached 73 degrees Friday, 74 Saturday and 75 Sunday, according to the National Weather Service.
“Please let it rain Saturday,” Pearce said.
Though the cause isn’t yet known, Blankers said the fire serves as an early warning to be careful with all fires and keep an eye for any embers this summer
“Again we don’t know how this thing started, but it looks like things are starting to dry out and it could be a dry summer,” he said.
This story was originally published April 19, 2021 at 11:06 AM.
