North Cascades Highway reopens as wildfire continues to advance in rural Whatcom County
State Highway 20, the mountain pass that was closed last week because of a wildfire in remote Whatcom County, opened Wednesday morning.
“Travelers along SR 20 are advised they may encounter firefighting personnel and apparatus working along the highway. Traffic control is in place for the safety of the traveling public and should be observed,” the Washington State Department of Transportation said in an email.
“This remains an active fire area and the road is subject to close again with little notice based on fire behavior or firefighting mitigation strategies,” WSDOT said.
The wildfire, dubbed the Sourdough Fire, has been burning in steep terrain since late July and was started by a lightning strike on 6,113-foot Sourdough Mountain in the North Cascades National Park east of Newhalem.
No injuries have been reported and no buildings have burned, said Nicholas DiGiacco, a spokesman for the National Interagency Fire Center team that’s managing operations.
DiGiacco told The Bellingham Herald that firefighters continue to trim brush away from buildings and electrical lines and lay hose lines, water tanks and pumps ahead of the fire, which has grown to 1,710 acres.
Helicopters have been dropping water to slow the flames and recent cool, rainy weather was helping to slow the fire’s spread, he said in an interview.
“I think we’re setting ourselves up for success. It’s a slow-moving fire,” DiGiacco said.
Seattle City Light throttled back its power generation equipment briefly this week as firefighters worked to protect the Diablo Dam, buildings and power lines in the area, spokeswoman Jenn Strang told The Herald.
“In order to provide safe access to fire crews and our staff, and to safeguard our infrastructure, there was a brief period where the upper two dams, Diablo and Ross, were offline and their transmission lines deenergized. We have since brought Diablo back online and anticipate for Ross to follow shortly,” Strang said in an email.
“All fires are unpredictable, and we cannot anticipate the path it will take in the future. But City Light, and the fire crews are doing their best to protect and preserve critical infrastructure and equipment from damage. There is no current threat to any City Light dam, powerhouse, transmission lines or facility,” she said in an email.
Evacuations have been ordered for the campus of the North Cascades Environmental Learning Center and the Ross Lake Resort.
Firefighters wrapped the historic 1933 fire lookout on Sourdough Mountain with fireproof material to protect it.
Floating cabins at Ross Lake Resort have been moved away from shore as a precaution, according to an online briefing about the fire.
“Moving east of the fire’s edge, crews are focusing efforts on the Big Beaver suspension bridge and the Green Point, Cougar, and Big Beaver campgrounds on the west side of Ross Lake,” the online briefing said.
A drone was being used to find hot spots on the fire.
WSDOT warned that the highway could close again without notice and that stopping in that area is not permitted.
“There’s nowhere for (cars) to stop and pull over. We’d like them to keep moving rather than stopping and trying to snap a picture,” DiGiacco said.
The North Cascades Visitor Center in Newhalem is open, but many campgrounds and mountain trails are closed.
This story was originally published August 9, 2023 at 9:43 AM.
