Single Publication

Thursday, September 15, 2022 
 

Boulder Mountain Fire Information 509-508-3389 (8am-8pm) | 2022.bouldermountain@firenet.gov 

Quick Facts

Fire Location: 9 miles NW of Cusick, WA in Tacoma Creek and Boulder Mtn.

Size: 2,305 acres

Containment: 55%

Start Date: 8/31/22

Cause: Under Investigation

Incident Commander: Mike Johnston, Great Basin Type 2 Incident Management Team #7

Personnel: 552

Online Links

InciWeb: inciweb.nwcg.gov/incident/8382/ 

Facebook: @NeWFireInfo

Summary: The Boulder Mountain Fire was detected on Wednesday August 31st, 2022, at approximately 6:00 pm. The fire is located in the Tacoma Creek and Boulder Mountain area, 9 miles Northwest of Cusick, Washington. A mix of State, Federal and Private land is impacted. The terrain is difficult, and the fire is burning in heavy timber, slash, and beetle infested trees. Cause of the fire remains under investigation.  

Weather|Anticipated Fire Behavior: Wednesday saw rain over most of the fire. The weather stations showed a tenth of an inch to over a half an inch in one area on the east side. However, with the heavy canopy of trees not all rain reaches the ground, meaning the fire behavior has slowed but still has the potential to be active in the right conditions. Thunderstorms across the ridge did produce lighting strikes and observation for potential new starts is active. There remains a chance for additional moisture tomorrow as a cooling trend continues into the weekend. 

Actions: Despite the weather, crews did make more progress and containment is now registering at 55%. Firefighters are redistributing hose and directing water onto areas that they hadn’t been able to access earlier. As edges are marked as contained, the team will begin suppression repair efforts on many areas of the fire. Resources will shift around the fire as plans are put in place.  

Important Information: What is “suppression repair?” During the course of fighting any fire, resources will disturb a lot of ground through their actions. This can be small areas like hand line or fixing a culvert to layers of contingency line put in by dozers. Suppression repair is the term for repairing all those impacts as they no longer serve their original purpose. It is important to note that repair is different than rehabilitation and does not include replanting or seeding.