Burn bans in Clallam and Jefferson counties will remain in place until fire officials are certain conditions will stay wet.
Recent rain is not enough to significantly change the fire danger on the North Olympic Peninsula, said Chief Gordon Pomeroy of East Jefferson Fire-Rescue.
“The burn ban will last at least until the end of September. [The rain] is not enough to begin to quell the danger,” he said.
Both Jefferson and Clallam counties have maintained total fire bans since July due to the record drought that has gripped the Pacific Northwest.
The annual summer burn ban and the total ban put in place during the record-dry summer are expected to remain in place until at least the end of October, when the seasonal burn ban traditionally ends, said Port Angeles Fire Chief Ken Dubuc.
“The annual burn ban is set in stone,” he said.
Bans become more confusing to residents if the ban is on and off according to the weather, and the National Weather Service has forecast a return to a sunny, dry pattern beginning Saturday, Dubuc said.
He said that although rain has fallen, there are still very dry areas under trees, and if the rain stops, the area could quickly return to tinder-dry conditions.
The total burn ban could be reconsidered midmonth if the rains continue and the forecast shows more rain coming, he said.
Comprehensive burn bans are in effect in all Peninsula cities and on land managed by the state Department of Natural Resources, Olympic National Forest and Olympic National Park.
The cities of Forks, Port Angeles, Sequim and Port Townsend have banned fires within city limits, prohibiting the burning of trash, yard debris and all recreational fires, including barbecues using charcoal briquettes, pellet-fed smokers or in backyard fire rings.
The bans include decorative uses of fire, such as fire torches or commemorative or celebratory paper lanterns.
Lands managed by DNR have the same restrictions as the counties and cities.
No fires whatsoever are allowed on DNR lands.
The national park and national forest continue to allow campfires — including wood, charcoal and briquette fires — only in designated fire rings and grates in developed campgrounds.
There is a ban on open fires in the park’s wilderness backcountry, including all locations along the coast.
The national forest has implemented fire restrictions in four campgrounds “due to the extreme fire potential” in those areas.
Those campgrounds are the Littleton Horse Campground west of Lake Crescent, Lena Lake Campground south of Brinnon, Elkhorn Campground near the Dosewallips River west of Quilcene and the Campbell Tree Grove Campground east of Quinault.
Olympic National Park continued to allow fires in the fire rings provided in developed campgrounds, while the backcountry fire ban remains in place.
Nearly 10 inches of rain had fallen on the Paradise Fire in the Queets River valley as of Tuesday morning.
The rain has enabled the fire managers to downgrade the fire from a Type 3 to a Type 4, which reduces the number of personnel assigned to administration and on the fire lines.
The 2,796-acre Paradise Fire is the largest fire in Olympic National Park history, unprecedented in terms of a fire in a rainforest, according to fire officials.
The rain has slowed the fire but not extinguished it.
Much of the 9.55 inches of rain measured near the site is being absorbed by the dry mosses and lichens in the thick rainforest canopy, and very little is making it down to the ground, where the forest duff — a thick layer of forest debris — remains dry and embers can remain hot deep under the surface, said Brent Reid, spokesman for fire managers.
The Paradise Fire, along with other, smaller fires in the Olympic Mountains, will be monitored by aircraft until the winter’s soaking rains completely eliminate the chances of the fires becoming active again, he said.
Reid said if any fire becomes active, fire managers can reclassify it and more firefighters can be called in.
Firefighters currently assigned to the fire have been staying near the Queets area and are expected to return to the Paradise Fire to mop up and possibly remove firefighting equipment that was left behind when they were evacuated for Saturday’s historic wind storm, he said.
He said those freed from the Paradise Fire will be available to be assigned to the major fires burning in other areas of the Northwest.
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Reporter Arwyn Rice can be reached at 360-452-2345, ext. 5070, or at arice@peninsuladailynews.com.
