{"id":6000,"date":"2020-04-17T07:50:11","date_gmt":"2020-04-17T14:50:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sbbch.org\/?p=6000"},"modified":"2025-04-26T16:31:19","modified_gmt":"2025-04-26T22:31:19","slug":"fighting-wildfires-in-the-time-of-covid-19","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sbbch.org\/?p=6000","title":{"rendered":"Fighting wildfires in the time of COVID-19"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.msn.com\/en-us\/weather\/topstories\/washington-state-preparing-to-fight-wildfires-in-the-time-of-coronavirus\/ar-BB12KZ3V?ocid=spartandhp\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-6001\" src=\"https:\/\/sbbch.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/wf.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"821\" height=\"459\" srcset=\"https:\/\/sbbch.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/wf.jpg 821w, https:\/\/sbbch.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/wf-300x168.jpg 300w, https:\/\/sbbch.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/wf-768x429.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 821px) 100vw, 821px\" \/><\/a>Washington state is gearing up for a new challenge this year \u2013 fighting wildfires in the time of coronavirus.<\/p>\n<p>Fire season is already here, too &#8212; 160 fires have sparked so far statewide, with 30% of them in the western part of the state. Thursday, Dept. of Natural Resources crews were fighting two of the largest fires burning near Arlington in Snohomish County, and Acme, in Whatcom County.<br \/>\n\u201cIt\u2019s been challenging to fight fire, and to get people trained up this year,\u201d said Jay Guthrie, asst. region manager for Forest Practice and Fire with the Washington Dept. of Natural Resources.<br \/>\nSpring training sessions have moved online, which makes it difficult to do the hands-on learning of firefighting. Prescribed burns were canceled. Crews are also trying to practice social distancing \u2013 keeping at least six feet apart while working in the field.<br \/>\nThey do have one thing going for them already:<br \/>\n\u201cPart of normal working safety is to keep 10 feet apart, so any swing of a tool is not within range of someone else,\u201d said Guthrie.<br \/>\nState Commissioner of Public Lands Hilary Franz said they\u2019re currently working with the federal government to rewrite the playbook for wildfires during a pandemic.\u00a0 <a href=\"https:\/\/www.msn.com\/en-us\/weather\/topstories\/washington-state-preparing-to-fight-wildfires-in-the-time-of-coronavirus\/ar-BB12KZ3V?ocid=spartandhp\">READ MORE<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Washington state is gearing up for a new challenge this year \u2013 fighting wildfires in the time of coronavirus. Fire season is already here, too &#8212; 160 fires have sparked so far statewide, with 30% of them in the western part of the state. Thursday, Dept. of Natural Resources crews were fighting two of the [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6000","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-around-the-campfire"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sbbch.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6000","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sbbch.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sbbch.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sbbch.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sbbch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6000"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/sbbch.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6000\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6003,"href":"https:\/\/sbbch.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6000\/revisions\/6003"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sbbch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6000"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sbbch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6000"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sbbch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6000"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}