Whatcom’s Chilliwack Complex wildfire still burning. Here’s how it compares to others

The Chilliwack Complex of wildfires continues to burn in Whatcom County east of Mount Baker and has now charred nearly 6,200 acres in the North Cascades National Park Complex.

The Northwest Interagency Coordination Center, which coordinates wildfire and high-risk incidents for 11 agencies within Oregon and Washington, tweeted new photos of the Whatcom County fires, which it said were 0% contained and had burned a total 6,185 acres as of Wednesday, Sept. 14, or more than 9½ square miles.

Four, lightning-caused fires make up the Chilliwack Complex Fire, which is burning just south of the U.S.-Canada border approximately five to 15 miles east northeast of the Mt. Baker Ski Area.

The North Cascades National Park Complex first reported the fires last week, announcing that the first fires had caused trail and camp closures in the area, including the portion of Little Beaver Trail between Stillwell and Perry Creek camps, the portion of Big Beaver Trail between Stillwell and Luna camps, and Beaver Pass Camp.

In spite of dry, windy, warm conditions that caused a Red Flag warning last week, the Chilliwack Complex of fires has been relatively slow to grow. As of Sept. 8, the fires had burned nearly 4,000 acres.

For comparison, the Chilliwack Complex fire is about two-thirds the size of the 9,940 acres charred by the Bolt Creek Fire, which started Saturday, Sept. 10, near Stevens Pass, according to the Northwest Interagency Coordination Center. Both fires pale compared to the 92,548 acres consumed in the Cedar Creek Fire in Oregon.

The Chilliwack Complex is not even the largest fire burning in Whatcom County, as the Parks fire has consumed nearly 18,000 acres in extreme eastern Whatcom County, Okanogan County and British Columbia, according to the Northwest Interagency Coordination Center’s Northwest Large Fire map.

As of Wednesday, the Northwest Interagency Coordination Center reported 14 large, existing fires in Washington and Oregon that had burned 273,905 acres. On Tuesday, Sept. 13, the agency reported that the Seven Bays Fire, which burned 1,232 acres near Davenport, had been 100% contained.

Over the past week, more than 8,000 firefighters and support staff have battled those fires, according to an agency tweet on Tuesday.

Wednesday’s fire update said there had been a total of 2,247 lightning strikes Tuesday and Wednesday in Washington state, and thunderstorms are expected again in the afternoon and evening.

As of Wednesday morning, air quality remained in the good range at all Department of Ecology monitoring stations in Whatcom County and were in good or moderate levels throughout Western Washington.