BRINNON — East Jefferson Fire-Rescue personnel were battling a brush fire Saturday afternoon in clearcut area of Olympic National Forest northwest of Fulton Creek Road and King Drive near the Mason County line.
The area reportedly was close to a power line corridor and said to be growing rapidly as it burned downhill.
It had consumed about a quarter-acre shortly before 5 p.m. A helicopter was called in about 5:40 p.m., presumably to make a water drop on the site.
The fire’s cause had not been determined.
As of about 4 p.m., East Jefferson Fire-Rescue had dispatched three tenders, three brush trucks and an aid unit to the blaze that responders said may have started in a slash pile.
Two tenders, a fire engine and an aid unit had been sent from Mason County. A Port Ludlow brush truck also was on scene.
At least two crews from Olympic Corrections Center in Forks also had been summoned to the scene, as were state Department of Natural Resources and U.S. Forest Service officials.
The fire was the only serious blaze reported as of Saturday afternoon on the North Olympic Peninsula, where residents worried about tinder-dry conditions in high heat and low humidity.
But despite burn bans in Jefferson and Clallam counties and their municipalities, Clallam County dispatchers reported seven burn complaints between LaPush and Sequim, plus three controlled brush fires and a smoke report.
Peninsula Communications also logged 32 complains of fireworks, mostly in Port Angeles but four in unincorporated areas of Clallam County.
