Biden & Inslee Discuss Wildfire Resource Shortages

OLYMPIA, WA — President Joe Biden met with Governor Jay Inslee and a bipartisan group of other governors Friday for an emergency meeting discussing the wildfires wracking the northwestern United States.

The Forest Service NW confirms that, as of Friday morning, 16 large wildfires are burning in Oregon and Washington alone.

To the east, Idaho and Montana are dealing with dozens more.

In total, the federal government is assisting with 66 uncontained wildfires across the western U.S. Already, more than 3.4 million acres of land has burned.

Biden's meeting Friday included Oregon Gov. Kate Brown, Montana's Greg Gianforte, Wyoming's Mark Gordon, Idaho's Brad Little, California's Gavin Newsom and Minnesota's Tim Walz, the Associated Press reported. During their gathering, the president told the governors that federal wildfire resources were spread thin.

“Our resources are already being stretched to keep up,” Biden said. “We need more help.”

When asked what supplies Washington needed to contain its blazes, Gov. Inslee shared concerns about fuel shortages and the need for more aerial support and bulldozers. But, he said, his biggest worry was that not enough is being done to mitigate climate change.

"There is nothing in human intervention against these fires while climate continues to ravage our forest," Inslee said. "We used to think of these things as forests. Now they're just fields of fuel."

Inslee also touted Biden's infrastructure plan as a step in the right direction, and urged the president to continue fighting for its passage.

"We have to have those climate investments, there is only one way to save these forests from the ravages of climate," Inslee said. "Our own federal scientists have said that if we accept a one degree centigrade change, we'll have a 600 percent increase in these fires."

This summer's extreme heat has forced state lawmakers to take extra precautions for fire season. Earlier this month, Commissioner of Public Lands Hilary Franz announced the closure of all lands managed by the Department of Natural Resources east of the Cascades.

On the other hand, Western Washington and Puget Sound have largely avoided the negative impacts of the wildfires, as the smoke has been blown past Idaho and out to the East Coast. That may change over the weekend, however, as forecasters now predict two waves of smoke are headed to the Puget Sound region.

Read more: Weekend Smoke Forecast: A Change In The Air For Puget Sound