Aaron Patten was in a boat on his way back from Blakely Island on Monday, June 15, when he noticed a lot of smoke on Deer Point. He quickly docked and found the source. It was a hillside on fire, just below the home of David and Ginger Ridgway.

He got help from Seth Ybarra, who was working nearby, and they both fought the fire with the homeowner’s hose and tools. Ybarra is a new firefighter and had just completed the district’s annual wildfire safety training. He called the emergency in on his district two-way radio and additional firefighters were en route even before an exact address could be broadcast.

Earlier in the day,David had carefully extinguished a small permitted fire. No heat or even steam was rising up from the site by noon and it was checked throughout the afternoon. Confident the fire was completely out, the owner made a trip into town. While he was gone, that fire came back to life.

The fire spread 100 feet up the hillside to the base of the home, contacting it in three different places. Thanks to a concrete foundation and good wildland clean up, the fire did not ignite the siding. It moved under the deck area where the yard tools had been set, well away from the burn site. There it burned around two gasoline containers, a small brush burner and a weed eater. These did not catch fire, although one gas container had begun to melt.

Brush Engine 21, Doe Bay Engine 25 and Eastsound Engine 21 responded. However, Patten and Ybarra had the fire under control and only the brush engine was needed for “mop up” of the remaining hot spots.

Deputy Fire Marshal Paul Turner investigated the site and determined David had done everything right.

“He’d watered it down and checked it twice before leaving,” Turner said. “There was an unburned ring completely around the fire, which shows he had properly watered the area. Which leads me to believe it may have gone underground. That’s all we can figure out.”

The unusually dry weather has increased fire danger to “High,” which is very unusual for Orcas Island in June. At this point the small amount of rain predicted will do little to mitigate the problem. Because of this danger outdoor burning has been closed early. Small, attended campfire of two feet or less are still allowed at this time.