Residents near Lake Whatcom wildfire get ready to flee if the flames start heading their way

This story has been updated

Residents of Blue Canyon along the southeast shore of Lake Whatcom were waiting for news and watching the sky for signs that a wildfire burning above their homes could be headed their way.

The fire, was confirmed by aerial flight mapping to be at 45 acres as of Wednesday morning. The fire was originally estimated to be 20-30 acres.

No injuries have been reported as of Wednesday morning, and there has been no damage to structures.

It was burning in dense forest along a steep and narrow canyon of 3,000-foot Steward Mountain, he said.

“The fire, when it started to grow, it grew really fast. It started getting beyond the ability for local DNR to manage the complexity of the incident,” Hankey said “It is very visible, there was a risk to structures and homes. It is very steep terrain, very difficult terrain. There’s rolling debris, there are boulders coming down, there are trees coming down and some of them are sliding all the way to the lake.”

Another concern for the fire is that this debris is impacting the Lake Whatcom watershed, which supplies the drinking water for Bellingham.

A Type-3 incident management team from Southeastern Washington arrived Wednesday to take command of the the fire, Hankey said.

Several residents of Blue Canyon Road were gathering clothes and cherished belongings and moving cars, boats and RVs out of harm’s way on Tuesday afternoon.

“We’ve got stuff packed. (But) we’ve never had anything like this before,” said McKenna Hinton, who lives with her husband, Derek Hinton, on Blue Canyon Road, an enclave of about 20 homes along an abandoned railway that was part of a coal mining operation 100 years ago.

A “Level 2” evacuation order remained in effect as of Wednesday morning, meaning residents should be ready to leave at a moment’s notice.

Several of the Hintons’ neighbors also were packing, including Kami Irwin of Maui, Hawaii, who had flown to Bellingham on a fundraising mission for wildfire victims there.

“I came here to do a fundraiser and now there’s a fire at my parents’ house. We started getting paintings and stuff that’s important, as much as we could take out,” Irwin told The Bellingham Herald as she watched smoke hug a ridgeline above her parents’ lakeshore home.

Linda Woods stood outside her house, a renovated biker bar that is one of the oldest buildings in the area, watching as Seattle television crews prepared to broadcast live.

“I’ve got my important papers packed. If we get an evacuation notice, I’m going to load up my kitties and go,” Woods told The Herald.

Woods said she and others had been fearing a wildfire because of a lack of rain since spring.

An overnight rainstorm and continued cool weather could help keep the flames in check Wednesday, Hankey said. But it wouldn’t be enough to douse the flames completely, he added.

Meanwhile, the National Weather Service in Seattle offered hope for firefighters.

“Expect overall cooler and cloudier conditions to persist through much of the week as additional (storms) move across the region,” meteorologist Brent Bower said online.

“Weak, transient high pressure brings a slightly warmer and drier pattern Friday and Saturday, but the cooler and showery pattern resumes for the start of next week,” Bower said online.

Firefighting efforts

Air tankers and helicopters dropped water on the fire and slowed its progress Tuesday, but poor visibility from low clouds grounded them about noon, Hankey said.

Helicopters were still being used to combat the fire Wednesday, so drones and boats are still banned from the area as they can get in the way, authorities said.

In addition, firefighters from the elite Baker River Hotshots arrived to fight the fire, likely by using hoselines and “burnouts” or backfires, he said.

Boats were banned from Lake Whatcom because firefighting aircraft were taking water from the lake.

“The Sheriff’s Office Marine Unit is clearing Lake Whatcom of boat traffic in order for scoop planes to safely pick up water to fight the fire. The city of Bellingham Parks Department is closing Lake Whatcom boat launches,” the Sheriff’s Office said.

Lake Whatcom Park, including the popular Hertz Trail and Chanterelle Trail, was closed because of the fire, the Whatcom County Parks and Recreation Department said online.