OLYMPIA – The Washington State Department of Natural Resources (DNR) announced last week the following:
New Fire Danger
Rating System
In the Central and Eastern part of the state, a new fire danger rating system has been implemented. Instead of basing the fire danger rating by county, it is now based on geographic areas that share similar fuels, climate, and topography in addition to administrative boundaries and is now called Fire Danger Rating Areas. This change was developed with the intent of having a common fire behavior component, and was developed through interagency collaboration and to help clarify messages with multiple agencies.
The IFPL system
Industrial Fire Precaution Levels apply to all industrial operations that might cause a fire on or adjacent to lands protected from fire by DNR (WAC 332-24-301); this applies to logging, industrial and forest landowner operations.
The levels are established for each of the 38 “shutdown zones” in the state on the basis of National Fire Danger Rating System data.
There are four IFPL levels:
• Level 1 (closed fire season): fire equipment and a fire watch are required
• Level 2 (partial hoot owl): limits certain activities to between 8 p.m. and 1 p.m.; fire equipment and a fire watch are required
• Level 3 (partial shutdown): prohibits some activities and limits others to between 8 p.m. and 1 p.m.; fire equipment and a fire watch are required
• Level 4 (general shutdown): prohibits all activities
DNR’s wildfire mission
Led by Commissioner of Public Lands Hilary Franz, DNR is responsible for preventing and fighting wildfires on 13 million acres of private, state and tribal-owned land. DNR is the state’s largest wildfire fighting force.
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