Peninsula avoided a major wildfire, but couldn’t escape the smoke

The Peninsula dodged a bullet last week, as one of the few areas in Pierce County without a major brush fire. But it couldn’t dodge the smoke, which blanketed Gig Harbor and the Key Peninsula and forced the closure of just-opened schools.

And officials warn that the fire season isn’t over yet. Woods and underbrush remain tinder dry, and the fire danger is extreme.

“We were very fortunate to avoid a large brush fire during the wind storm of last week,” said Tina Curran, a prevention specialist at Gig Harbor Fire & Medic One. “Like Graham and Sumner, we have a lot of dry vegetative fuels here in Gig Harbor. In fact, we did have a number of smaller brush fires during last week’s weather event, but were able to get control and extinguish the fires quickly.”

“Considering the Sumner and Graham fires were both caused by trees falling over power lines, and in areas where there is a terrific amount of dry vegetation and high fire spreading wind, this could have really happened anywhere.”

Peninsula schools had barely opened when they were forced to close again Monday because of unhealthy air quality.

“In order to keep smoke out of our schools and buildings, we need to turn off our fresh air intake systems, which is the opposite of what we have been instructed to do to protect students and staff from exposure to COVID-19,” explained PSD spokesperson Aimee Gordon.

“Due to this contradiction, all PSD schools and buildings will be closed to the public and most staff will work remotely. School will continue to be conducted remotely.” It was unclear when schools would reopen.

Wildfire smoke was to make the air quality “very unhealthy” for most of the current week, the Tacoma-Pierce County Health Department and other agencies warned in a joint bulletin on Monday.

“The weather system that was expected to bring us some relief from the smoke has failed to materialize today and we will likely only see minimal improvements in air quality,” the bulletin said.

“A continued chance of light, isolated rain may bring some improvement, but overall we expect lingering wildfire smoke to continue to make air quality unhealthy or unhealthy for sensitive groups, through at least the middle of the week.,” the statement continued. “A storm arriving later in the week should eventually clear out most of the smoke.”

The trouble began on Labor Day, when high winds and dry conditions led to at least four brush fires, four fallen trees, and hundreds of Gig Harbor homes without power.

“We had a small brush fire right on Hunt Street this morning, another on Goodman Drive, one across the Purdy Bridge on 302, one on 146th Avenue Northwest,” said Curran on the day after.

Curran said there were many calls throughout the night, and some reports were still in progress Tuesday morning.

Wind gusts up to 45 miles an hour were recorded across the Puget Sound area, according to the National Weather Service.

Within 12 hours on Sept. 8, a tree fell on a power line at Shirley Avenue, a large tree fell and blocked two lanes at Rosedale Drive, and a large tree fell on three cars at Harbor Country Drive.

“We have equipment where we can cut the trees and get them out of the way,” Curran said.

Just before 8 a.m. the same day, residents close to the 3300 block of Hunt Street heard a large bang and saw sparks coming from a power pole. The sparks caught the power pole and surrounding grass on fire. When firefighters arrived, bystanders were putting water on the brush with a garden hose.

On the Key Peninsula, a quarter-acre brush fire scorched a wooded area near the Lake of the Woods housing development. This was cleared up within an hour and half, according to Key Peninsula Fire.

There were also three water rescue calls on Labor Day, from people who were out on the water when the high winds hit.

“To have three in one day is significant,” said Anne Nesbit, the public information officer for Key Peninsula Fire. “The waves were extreme due to the wind.”

Nesbit added that some branches fell on the roads, but there was nothing significant that would cause road closures.

All of the brush fires in Gig Harbor were fairly small in nature, and nothing got out of control.

“Thankfully they could get knocked down by a couple of engines,” Curran said. “The bigger ones are happening in East Pierce County.”

One of these brush fires was at Goodman Middle School. The Peninsula School District, which has scheduled a first day of online classes this morning, sent out an email to families directing them away from the school.

“Goodman Middle School and Harbor Heights Elementary School are experiencing a power outage due to a nearby brush fire,” the email reads. “Harbor Heights families who were coming to the school for conferences today should reschedule with their teachers. ... for everyone’s safety, please avoid coming to our school campuses after 1 p.m. today. Thank you.”

Curran said many brush fires were started due to power lines going down.

“When the lines or poles go down, they create sparks, and everything is so dry,” Curran said.

According to Peninsula Light’s Twitter page, at one point over 1,000 homes lost power in the Gig Harbor and Key Peninsula area.

Many Gig Harbor Fire Fighters were deployed to other cities or counties who experienced much larger fires.

“As of today, we have sent out fire fighters to assist in the county,” said Todd Meyer, the assistant chief of operations for Gig Harbor Fire. “Graham fire had 100-acre fire start last night, so they requested resources from all over the county. The Bonney Lake area had a fire, so they requested resources from throughout the county.”

Key Peninsula Fire also sent one engine to help with the Graham fire, Nesbit said.

This story was originally published September 8, 2020 at 4:44 PM.