PORT ANGELES — A fire at the site of the former Elwha Dam last week burned about a half-acre of underbrush before it was contained within 90 minutes, thanks to an alert Internet user.
The fire was reported at about 7:15 p.m. Thursday by a computer user who was viewing one of Olympic National Park’s dam-removal webcams when the fire appeared on camera, the park said.
Smoke was first visible on-camera at 7 p.m., and flames reached straw mats that protect the reseeded hillside at 7:31 p.m.
Firefighters from the park, as well as the state Department of Natural Resources and Clallam County Fire District No. 2, had contained the blaze by 8:30 p.m.
The cause of the fire is under investigation.
Olympic National Park’s river restoration webcams can be viewed via the Peninsula Daily News website, www.peninsuladailynews.com.
The Elwha Dam webcam is one of six used to monitor the progress of river restoration during the dam removals.
Elwha Dam was fully demolished in March as part of the National Park Service’s $325 million Elwha River Restoration Project. All that remains is a bare hillside where the dam’s spillway and powerhouse were located.
The former dam and the former Lake Aldwell lakebed, located 5 miles from the mouth of the Elwha River, are being restored by a combined effort of the National Park Service and the Lower Elwha Klallam tribe.
A second dam, Glines Canyon Dam, located 13 miles above the mouth of the river, also is being removed and is expected to be demolished by March 2013.
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Reporter Arwyn Rice can be reached at 360-452-2345, ext. 5070, or at arwyn.rice@peninsuladailynews.com.
