PROTECTION ISLAND — A fire that broke out on Protection Island at the mouth of Discovery Bay was put out Wednesday after burning 15 acres, but firefighters are monitoring the site and will continue mop-up operations for the next few days.
The Protection Island National Wildlife Refuge is part of Jefferson County but under the control of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, and firefighters from several agencies responded to the fire that broke out Wednesday afternoon.
The state Department of Natural Resources provided firefighters and a helicopter to deliver firefighters and drop water, Olympic National Park Wildland Fire Module provided incident command and firefighters from the National Park Service, U.S. Forest Service and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS), and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service refuge staff, according to Megan Nagal, communications officer with FWS.
“The burn occurred in an area where refuge managers are conducting native prairie restoration and potentially helped remove invasive plants,” Nagal said in an email.
“The fire was not located in seabird nesting habitats. Refuge managers don’t anticipate any negative outcomes for the habitat or wildlife.”
The fire destroyed a derelict structure that was slated for demolition, Nagal said.
Protection Island is off-limits to the public, but it does have one resident, Marty Bluewater, who’s lived there for three years on property his family purchased as a vacation home some 51 years ago, thus allowing him to be grandfathered in when the island became a refuge.
Authorities have not released an official cause of the fire; Bluewater on Thursday said he thought it was maintenance equipment at the nearby restoration area.
Bluewater said at one point he was getting concerned he might have to evacuate the island, but that ended up not being the case thanks to a helicopter that was flown in to fight the fire.
“I don’t know who the actual people are with the helicopter, but I wanted to get in touch with them and thank them for saving my little paradise here,” Bluewater said.
The area that burned was just grass, according to Bluewater, and the protected bird habitats on the island didn’t appear to be threatened.
“Fortunately it has a sort of good ending,” he said.
Fires occasionally break out on the island, Bluewater said, and this latest fire demonstrated the need for a permanent fire fighting vehicle stationed there.
“We do need some real piece of fire equipment so people can put out the small fires before they get big,” Bluewater said. “But I’m so thankful to the people that did come out to fight the fire.”
The Protection Island fire was one of many that have broken out across the Olympic Peninsula in the past few days. Officials have attributed them to hot weather, lack of moisture and wind.
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Reporter Peter Segall can be reached at peter.segall@peninsuladailynews.com.
