The Bolt Creek Fire was a large wildfire on the western slopes of the Cascade Mountains in Washington along U.S. Route 2 in 2022. It burned north of the towns of Index, Grotto and Skykomish in northern King and southern Snohomish counties from September 9 through late October when changes in the weather extinguished it. During the fire, U.S. Route 2 was closed for prolonged periods of time forcing traffic to detour across passes to the south and north, trapping some local communities with no alternative exits, and severely impacting regional air quality for multiple days. The total cost of the fire and post-event mitigation is estimated to have been $8.7 million. Following the fire, the section of U.S. Route 2 running along the burn scar was deemed a higher risk for flash flooding, with the risk expected to diminish over an estimated five year period. The lack of alternate routes through the section, due to the closure of the Old Cascade Highway, was again brought into public discussion.
Background
The Old Cascade Highway which runs roughly parallel to U.S. Route 2 intermittently between Index and Skykomish was once used as an alternative route by traffic in the Route 2 corridor when the main route was congested or blocked. However, in 2011, heavy flooding created a washout along the Old Cascade Highway resulting in its permanent closure as an alternative through route between the East Fork of the Miller River and the Miller River bridge. The only road access left was the Money Creek Bridge west of Skykomish. While the area has about six full-time residents, it contains a number of vacation and summer home properties as well that can increase the population to 60. Back country outdoor activities such as hiking and camping add an uncertain further number of people.
In the lead up to September 2022 the region had a typical volume of precipitation for the year. Unlike in prior years however, spring was noted to be cooler and wetter than average, which was then followed by a summer of hotter and dryer conditions than average. The dry weather set in on the Summer solstice and ushered in the driest summer on record. The concentration of rain into the late winter and early spring allowed the forests on the Cascades west slopes to become unusually dry and susceptible to fire. In the week leading up to that labor day weekend a red flag warning had been issues across the region.
Fire
The fire started around 5:00p.m. Pacific Daylight Time on September 9 on a property along Bolt Creek Road, a location approximately north of Skykomish. The steep terrain where the fire was burning meant that much of the area was roadless and inaccessible to fire engines. The steep slopes across much of the region also created rolling fire debris hazards for anyone downslope. As such, the majority of the fire was left to burn under watch without any heavy intervention.
By September 11, a section of U.S. Route 2 between Zeke's Drive-in, located east of Gold Bar, to the eastern city limits of Skykomish had been closed. This was combined with mandatory evacuations between Index and Skykomish. The fire had been growing very rapidly with expansion from under between to recorded over a 12 hour period. Around 200 Washington firefighters from across the state had responded to the fire by September 11. Westerly blowing winds carried ashes out to the Puget Sound with ash fall in Everett and Marysville plus orange smokey sky across the region. The world air quality index recorded "moderate" to "very unhealthy" air conditions for locations in the region. At 3:00p.m. on September 10, a countywide evacuation alert was sent by the Snohomish County Department of Emergency Management by error. The alert was meant to be much smaller, only targeting the area between Index and Skykomish and an estimated 300-400 homes, but was instead sent to all residents in Snohomish County. A helicopter rescue crew patrolling for stranded hikers in the vicinity of the fire on September 10 was forced to abandon the area due to heavy air turbulence from the fire.
The BNSF Railway coordinated with the incident teams in the deployment of one of its fire trains along the Bolt Creek perimeter between September 11 and 13. The fire train consisted of tank cars, a "fire" car, and a modified caboose, from which electricity was supplied to the pumps of the fire car. Upon deployment, the fire train took on a crew of firefighters, and slowly moved through the rail corridor to be protected. The tank cars carried loads of either water or fire retardant which was sprayed with the fire car hoses up to away onto active fires or on areas needing protection. During the fire trains work along the Bolt Creek perimeter, focus was made to protect railway infrastructure, bridges, overpasses, and other assets that might have been burned. Additional sprinkler systems were emplaced on wooden bridges for longer term protections that the retardant spraying was not able to cover.
As of September 13, Skykomish had not been ordered to evacuate, but power to the region had been turned off by the Bonneville Power Administration for a period to prevent additional hazards in the fire. It was restored to town on September 13. An evacuation order which had been issued for Index was lifted and some people were returning to that area.
U.S. Route 2 was closed though September 19 due to proximity of the firelines to rail, road and infrastructure. Work was concentrated along the southern margins of the fire, while growth along the northern margins was unimpeded and allowed to burn into the southern areas of the Wild Sky Wilderness.
On September 30, an estimated of mostly National Forest Service owned land had been burned with varying degrees of severity. The fire burned though conifer and hardwood timber, timber litter, and hardwood litter. Some areas encompassed by the fire had no documented historical record of having burned before. All of the area was second growth timber, the Old Growth forest having been logged years to decades ago. Assessment by the Washington Geological Surveys Wildfire-Associated Landslide Emergency Response Team took place over September 27 to 29 even though continuing fire activity across the area limited the teams access. The team examined the areas effected by fire along both U.S. Route 2 and Forest Service road 6510. Based on the Burned Area Reflectance Classification procedures and datasets, by September 30 around 16% () of the total burn was of high severity and an estimated 32% () was moderately burned. An overall estimate of just over half the burn area, at 51% (), was between low burn severity and wholly unburned but within the fire perimeter.
Official confirmation was released on October 2 that the incident management team had determined the fire was human caused, but the exact nature of the fire ignition as not known. The team stated exact cause was likely not going to be determined for weeks or months. As of that morning, estimates of the fire size were around and containment hovered near 36%. All evacuations and warnings were lifted by October 2 and access to most of the area restored. Only areas within the burn zone itself were still off limits, and U.S. Route 2 while open was operating with a speed restriction of 35 miles per hour in the fire zone.
Reporting on October 11 noted that the fire had burned an around and was only an estimated 36% contained. Due to both the continuing fire burning too close to roads and to fire damaged trees falling, U.S. Route 2 had been impacted by repeated intermittent closures. The fire was being managed by a crew of 200 wildlands firefighters at that time. On the ground hand powered work by fire crews and bulldozers were employed along with relying on preexisting barriers such as roads and streams to try to contain the fire. Problem areas were managed with helicopter and small plane water drops.
October 20 saw a shift in the prevailing weather patterns with the first notable rain of fall and a spike in the relative humidity into the 70% range, up from the 20% range had been hovering at. The fire had burned though private, federal, Tulalip tribal, and state lands from the base of Heybrook Ridge on the west to the Beckler River Campground on the east and from the Skykomish River on the south north into the Wild Sky Wilderness. This totaled up to an estimated with growth in the first week blowing up over 10,000 acres. The fire was monitored, but due to the mountain terrain, it was left to burn until fall precipitation put it out fully. With the onset of fall and increased rain, landslides and increased tree falls were a noted problem. By November 20 repeated rain and snow events had already resulted in burn scar threats with a flash flood threat issued for the burn scar during an October 25, 2022 storm.
The combination of mountain and valley terrain where the Bolt Creek Fire burned in conjunction with a small established rural population lead to large areas of limited to zero cellular or internet accessibility. In an effort to support communication needs of the agencies combating the fire, Snohomish County deployed several "Mobile Information Technology Response Units". The units were built into trailers that could be towed to areas needing infrastructure support, the units having cell, internet and power generation capacities, and were used to link into regional networks and create hotspots for emergency responders. Reporting by the Everett Herald on October 10 noted that during the fire, the Espresso Chalet, a location set for the 1987 Harry and the Hendersons and 2021 The Stairs films, offered free coffee to the fire crews and acted as a local trapline for information, passing it from Public Information Officers to visitors of the stand and posting to the stand's Facebook page. Fire crews from across western Washington, Spokane, Oregon, Utah, and Mexico City were deployed on the fire. The fire was noted to likely be one of the largest that had happed in Snohomish County.
Air quality impacts
Puget Sound regional air conditions were showing improvement by October 2 with the Puget Sound Clean Air Agency anticipating "moderate" to "good" air quality over the weekend, though "unhealthy for sensitive groups" conditions would likely persist nearer to the fire. However over then next few weeks air quality remained spotty. Wind currents in the greater Puget sound area had pulled smoke from the fire westward into the Seattle area lowlands during the weeks of the fire. The lingering smoke built up resulting in several days which IQAir ranked air quality among the top cities or leading the list of regions with the worst air conditions in the world. October 19 and 20 saw Seattle ranking among IQAir's top 10 worst air quality conditions globally, rising and falling in ranking repeatedly over the 48 hour period. Conditions resulted in the worst air quality for most of October 19 before being overtaken by Beijing, China. Ongoing air quality advisories had been issued a week earlier and extended several times due to the stagnant air. During the worst of the air quality conditions the Puget Sound Clean Air Agency recommended regional residents stay indoors as much as possible to avoid the smoke, with air quality index readings of "226", equating to "very unhealthy" on the Environmental Protection Agencies assessment scale.
Aftermath