Prescribed fire near Walla Walla gets away from Forest Service officials

Fire officials on the Umatilla National Forest are working to suppress a prescribed burn that escaped their control.

They started the fire Monday in an effort to reduce fuel availability in the Tiger Creek area of the Mill Creek watershed that provides drinking water to Walla Walla. According to a U.S. Forest Service news release, shifting winds pushed the fire outside of the 335-acre area they planned to treat. The fire, estimated at 400 acres, burned 228 acres that were planned for treatment later this fall and about 155 acres that were not intended to burn.

Prescribed fire is one of the key tools used by land managers to reduce the risk of future wildfires and the Forest Service is sometimes criticized for falling short of its prescribed fire treatment goals. But the tool also comes with some risks, namely the tiny fraction of prescribed fires that escape control.

In 2022, Forest Service Chief Randy Moore ordered a 90-day halt to prescribed burning to allow for a review of protocols. The chief cited extreme fire conditions at the time as the reason for the pause, but it also followed a prescribed fire in New Mexico that escaped and became one of the largest wildfires in the state’s history.

Moore lifted the pause later that summer and directed agency fire officials to implement a set of recommendations designed to reduce the risk that prescribed fires will escape and grow into large fires.