Smoking materials caused a large brush fire Wednesday night and officials are worried the dry weather may bring more blazes.
Firefighters were called to a brush fire near Highway 14 and Interstate 205 about 10 p.m. Wednesday for a fire that destroyed a 50-by-50 yard area, Vancouver Fire Marshal Heidi Scarpelli said.
“These are extreme weather conditions with the onslaught of this dry weather,” she said. “It’s important to adhere to vigilant fire prevention safety measure.”
The National Weather Service has issued a fire weather watch, which will be in effect from Friday morning through Sunday morning, due to unstable conditions and unseasonably dry fuels.
In addition to the fire watch, the weather service has issued an excessive heat watch for Friday afternoon through late Saturday night, with temperatures expected to reach 90 to 100 degrees.
The weather service advises that people in the area take extra precautions, including rescheduling strenuous activities to early mornings or evenings and being aware of the signs of heat exhaustion and heat stroke. Wear light clothing and drink plenty of water.
Around the state, region
Record-breaking high temperatures are also expected in parts of Oregon and Idaho.
The heat watches also apply to the greater Puget Sound region and much of Oregon west of the Cascade Mountains. The warning covers many urban areas along the Interstate 5 corridor from Everett and Seattle south to Eugene, Ore.
Forecasters say high temperatures could hit triple digits east of the Cascades and in parts of Idaho over the weekend, and daily records are sure to fall.
Danny Mercer, a weather service meteorologist in Seattle, said the heat wave is coming earlier than usual in the summer and adds to an already hot June.
“This is pretty hot for this early in the season,” he said. Temperatures are expected to peak by Saturday in Western Washington, while the heat wave will climb in the Inland Northwest on Sunday.
The same ridge of strong pressure responsible for raising the mercury in the Southwest is “now building over the rest of the Western U.S. and that’s why we’re going to see our hot pattern,” said Ron Miller, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Spokane, Washington.
That weather pattern is bringing less cloud cover and warmer temperatures to the region.
Fire officials say continued dry, hot conditions are also raising the danger for wildfires. They’re asking the public to be careful to extinguish all campfires and cigarette butts. So far this year, there have been more than 300 fire starts in each of Washington and Oregon.
In central Oregon, fire managers say they expect firefighters to be busy responding to lightning-caused blazes as lightning and high temperatures will combine to create dangerous conditions.
The Associated Press contribute to this report.
