With forecasters warning of an above-normal 2026 fire season across the Pacific Northwest, state and military agencies in Washington are moving to ensure their firefighting resources are ready well before peak conditions arrive.
National Guard Air-to-Ground Training
On May 7, 2026, aviation crews from the Washington Army National Guard conducted joint wildfire response training with firefighters from Central Pierce Fire & Rescue near Puyallup. The exercise focused on air-to-ground coordination and communication during aerial firefighting missions, with a particular emphasis on water bucket operations.
For Washington Guard aviation crews, water bucket operations require annual certification and ongoing proficiency training to ensure pilots and crew members are prepared to respond safely and effectively when called upon. The joint training exercises help establish the communication protocols and coordination procedures that are critical during the chaos of a fast-moving wildfire, when aerial and ground resources must operate in close proximity.
Guard aviation assets — including UH-60 Black Hawk and CH-47 Chinook helicopters — have been deployed to support wildfire operations in previous seasons and represent an important surge capacity when fire activity overwhelms initial attack resources.
State Patrol Mobilization Program
The Washington State Patrol's State Fire Marshal's Office (SFMO) All-Risk Mobilization Program, which coordinates the deployment of fire resources from across the state to support large incident responses, conducted 28 wildfire mobilizations in 2025 — a figure that reflects the growing scale of fire activity in Washington in recent years. The SFMO expects to match or exceed that pace in 2026 given current fuel and weather conditions.
Mobilizations through the program allow smaller local departments to be reimbursed for deploying personnel and equipment to support large fires, creating a mutual aid network that gives incident commanders access to resources from departments statewide during major incidents.
DNR Prepares for Early Season
The Washington Department of Natural Resources held its 2026 fire season orientation briefing for media and stakeholders in mid-May, emphasizing that the combination of low snowpack and dry spring conditions has moved the expected onset of significant fire activity earlier in the calendar. DNR officials described 2026 conditions as "worse than normal" and indicated that agency resources would be fully mobilized ahead of schedule.
Washington DNR manages fire protection for approximately 13 million acres of private and state forestland in Washington, coordinating closely with the U.S. Forest Service, Bureau of Land Management, and local fire departments during large fire responses.
NIFC at Preparedness Level 2
The National Interagency Fire Center (NIFC) in Boise, Idaho currently stands at National Preparedness Level 2 on a scale of 1 to 5, meaning additional national resources are being monitored and positioned for potential deployment as fire activity ramps up across multiple geographic areas simultaneously.
More than 5,000 personnel are currently assigned to fire incidents across the country. NIFC manages the national coordination of firefighting resources — including aircraft, hotshot crews, Type 1 Incident Management Teams, and contract suppression resources — that are deployed to support regional responses when local and state capacity is exceeded.
Public Preparedness Urged
Emergency managers across Washington, Oregon, and Idaho are asking residents in fire-prone areas to do their part now by preparing defensible space, assembling emergency go-bags, and familiarizing themselves with local evacuation routes and alert systems. As Wayne Fournier, a Washington emergency manager, noted recently: "Every year, firefighters and emergency managers prepare for conditions they hope never materialize. That is the nature of the profession — you train, you coordinate, you build relationships, you stage resources, and you trust that the systems supporting those efforts will function when needed."