Awatchfire

Pierce County, Washington

Garda Falls Fire

Burning 15.9 miles south of Greenwater and 18.1 miles north-east of Ashford, since Monday 24 August.

Map of Washington. The Garda Falls Fire burns 55 miles from Ellensburg and 56 miles from Olympia, and 56 miles from the state capital, Olympia.
The fire sits 55 miles from Ellensburg and 56 miles from Olympia.

73

acres burned so far

51

days burning so far

0%

of the perimeter held

The picture as of 9:09am today

The Garda Falls Fire is still listed as active, and has not been looked at lately. Nothing has given off fresh heat for 149 hours.

No fresh look at this fire for 149 hours. Everything on the map below was seen before then.

Shaded relief map of the Garda Falls Fire. Amber flames mark every place that gave off heat in the last day; the shading is the shape of the ground.
Heat in the last day Higher ground pale, valleys dark Where another fire is recorded

149hours

since anything was last seen giving off heat — about 4:35am on Friday, local time.

0readings

of heat in the last day. There is not yet an earlier stretch of record to compare that against.

15.7miles

is how close the heat has come to Greenwater at any point in the record. In the last day the nearest heat has been None miles from it, and the closest this fire has come to Ashford is 17.7 miles, None in the last day.

0.4miles

is the furthest any heat has been seen from the point on the official record — the width of the ground involved so far.

Five other fires are burning inside the same view. Grand Park 2 Fire started on Friday 7 August, 4.3 miles north-east, and has reached 168 acres with 17 people assigned. Pigeon Fire started on Saturday 22 August, 4.9 miles north, and has reached 9 acres. Sluiskin Fire started on Saturday 22 August, 1.5 miles north, and has reached 0 acres. West Fork Fire started on Saturday 22 August, 1.7 miles north, and has reached 310 acres. White River Fire started on Saturday 22 August, 1.8 miles north, and has reached 0 acres. Their heat is counted against them, not against this fire, and the pale rings on the map mark where they are recorded.

Smoke has been recorded lying over this ground once so far. The thickest of it was thin between 1:00pm and 4:30pm local time. The last of those windows closed 185 hours ago, so what is overhead now is not known.

Where the heat is

No cluster large enough to call a separate front. The heat is in one piece.

Conditions measured 14.6 miles from the fire: 53°F, air at 46% humidity, a 4 mph wind out of the south.

How it got here

Four days of record on a day-53 fire

The record here begins at 2:43am on 26 Aug and runs to 4:34am on 9 Oct — 1058 hours, 21 readings of heat. The fire is on day 53, so the first 49 days are missing: nothing showed up from above until the fire was large enough and the sky over it clear enough for it to be seen.

Animated map of the Garda Falls Fire across the whole record, with a time bar along the bottom showing energy released and the local date.
The whole record, 355 frames at 3 hours a frame. The bar along the bottom is energy released; the moving line is the clock.

Day by day 4 days of record

  1. Map for Wed 26 Aug: flames mark every place that gave off heat that day.

    Wed26 Aug

    First readings

    • 6 heat readings
    • Heat from 2:43am to 4:21am
    • Spread 0.2 miles from the recorded point at its furthest
    • Burning through the pre-dawn
  2. Map for Thu 27 Aug: flames mark every place that gave off heat that day.

    Thu27 Aug

    Holding

    • 5 heat readings
    • Energy 36% down on the day before
    • Heat from 3:17am to 4:04am
    • Spread 0.3 miles from the recorded point at its furthest
    • Burning through the pre-dawn
  3. Map for Wed 7 Oct: flames mark every place that gave off heat that day.

    Wed7 Oct

    Holding

    • 1 heat readings
    • Energy 43% down on the day before
    • Heat from 2:21pm to 2:21pm
    • Spread 0.2 miles from the recorded point at its furthest
    • Burning through the afternoon
  4. Map for Fri 9 Oct: flames mark every place that gave off heat that day.

    Fri9 Octlatest

    The fiercest day

    • 9 heat readings — the most of any day
    • Energy 10.8 times the day before
    • Heat from 2:15am to 4:34am
    • Spread 0.4 miles from the recorded point at its furthest
    • Burning through the pre-dawn

How the record has moved

Each step is a change on the interagency incident record — acreage, containment or crews — with the date it was reported. No satellite reading is involved.

  1. Monday 24 August

    First reported

  2. Monday 24 August

    0 acres on record

    0 ac

  3. Monday 24 August

    Grew to 1 acres — containment 0%

    1 ac · 0% held

  4. Tuesday 25 August

    Revised to 0 acres

    0 ac · 0% held

  5. Tuesday 25 August

    Grew to 2 acres

    2 ac · 0% held

  6. Wednesday 26 August

    Grew to 50 acres

    50 ac · 0% held

  7. Thursday 27 August

    Revised to 40 acres

    40 ac · 0% held

  8. Friday 28 August

    Grew to 60 acres

    60 ac · 0% held

  9. Sunday 30 August

    Grew to 69 acres

    69 ac · 0% held

  10. Monday 31 August

    Grew to 71 acres

    71 ac · 0% held

  11. Saturday 5 September

    Grew to 72 acres

    72 ac · 0% held

  12. Tuesday 8 September

    Grew to 73 acres

    73 ac · 0% held

None of the perimeter is being reported as held. No crew count has been published for it yet. It has grown from 0 acres when it was first written down to 73 now. Nothing has looked at it for 149 hours, and the record still lists it as active.