Beach Fires: Always a Threat

Having a fire at the beach is a romantic ending to a day at the park. It is also a disastrous nightmare when that beach fire ignites the driftwood hiding under the beach sand, which then creeps unseen under the beach until it reaches exposed wood dozens of yards away, and then erupts into a blaze days later.

Beach fires are extremely difficult to extinguish due to the ability of fire to travel underground through driftwood. Suppression of a beach fire often requires bulldozers to dig up the underground logs to stop the fire at its source.

This, of course, makes the beach an unsightly mess for weeks and months following.
We fight beach fires at Deception Pass almost on an annual basis, because they are so tempting to park visitors.

This past weekend, we extinguished four beach fires in the park, all of which were small and contained when we found them. The potential for them to spread in a wind or through underground driftwood is always there.

Three of the fires were on Hope Island. This gem has an attractive beach on its south shore, full of driftwood that has come down the Skagit River. Sharp-eyed neighbors alerted us to these fires before they grew into the nightmares that they can be.

Please help us spread the word about the danger of beach fires, and how they can destroy what we all value.