Olympic National Park fire managers are setting fires for research.
One fire 10.8 miles up Deer Park Road from U.S. 101 southeast of Port Angeles proceeded as planned Thursday, and a second one was scheduled to be set Friday.
“One unit went exactly as planned,” said Larry Nickey, fire management officer.
“It went perfectly.
Smoke from the fires were expected to be visible from Port Angeles and Sequim.
The fires are meant to reproduce ground fires that burned through forest ground cover every 25 to 30 years before federal land managers began suppressing all fires, said Nickey on Tuesday.
Unlike the U.S. Forest Service, the National Park Service does not use prescribed fires to change and manage the composition of its forests, making this week’s research fires unique.
Fire managers were counting on warm weather and gentle offshore breezes on Thursday when they planned to set fire to eight acres of forest to learn how low-intensity wildfires affect stands of Douglas fir.
And that’s pretty much what they got — at the smaller of their two burn locations.
Although cooler temperatures and fog hugged the coast near Port Angeles and Sequim for a second day, at 2,900 feet in elevation, conditions were just what firefighters wanted.
“Our researcher wanted a 50-percent burn and we achieved an 80-percent burn, so we gave plenty to work with,” Nickey said.
Humidity climbed
But about 2,000 feet lower, at a 6½ acre area, the humidity climbed too high and by 2 p.m. the area was “out of prescription,” Nickey said.
Fire managers write plans for man-made fires called “prescriptions,” which include the temperature, humidity and wind conditions that need to be in place to have a intentional fire burn a certain way.
The humidity was too high Thursday afternoon for the second planned burn, but Todd Rankin, the park’s assistant fire management officer for fuels, told park spokesperson Barb Maynes that he thinks the weather conditions will be right at about noon today.
Fire crews this summer dug a hand line and installed a hose line to keep the fire from spreading beyond the four acres.
The fire set Thursday stayed within the fire zone boundaries and started no spot fires.
Smoke from the fire could best be seen from the turnouts on Hurricane Ridge Road.
Park employees stopped there during the day to explain the burn to people who stopped, Maynes said.
The weather forecast for the weekend calls for lower temperatures, even in areas without morning fog, and some light precipitation.
Nickey said he expects cooling over the weekend to extinguish most hot spots from the fire, but light smoke may occasionally be visible in the coming weeks.
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Reporter Randy Trick can be reached at 360-417-3537 or at randy.trick@peninsuladailynews.com.
