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CHAPTER 15. WILDFIRE <br />15-4 <br /> <br />Figure 15-1. Kittitas County Wildland Urban Interface Planning Areas <br />15.2.3 Past Events <br />Kittitas County has a rich fire history. According to the Washington State Enhanced Hazard Mitigation <br />Plan, there were five major wildfire events in Kittitas County from 1960 to 2017, with damages amounting <br />to $3,012,334. In addition, there were FEMA disaster declarations in Kittitas County for wildfires on July <br />30, 2004 (Elk Heights Fire) and July 9, 2014. According to the Headwaters Economic WUI snapshot report <br />(2018), Kittitas County was in the 85th percentile for existing WUI risk and 89th percentile for future WUI <br />risk in the West, respectively. Existing WUI risk is defined as the amount of forested land where homes <br />have already been built next to public lands, and future WUI risk is defined as the area of undeveloped, <br />forested private land bordering fire-prone public lands. There are a total of 413 western counties and the <br />higher the percentile the higher the risk. Kittitas County is in the 44th percentile in Washington State when <br />ranked by existing risk and 69th percentile for future potential risk according 2010 data. As shown in Figure <br />15-2 and Figure 15-3, there have been a total of 372 wildfire on DNR land in Kittitas County, amounting <br />to a total of 122,769 acres burned from 2008 to 2018 (WA DNR). The largest fire recorded in Kittitas <br />County was the Colockum Tarps fire in 2013, which burned 81,733 acres of land in Chelan and Kittitas <br />Counties. The Taylor Bridge Fire in 2012 caused 61 structures to be lost about 4 miles southeast of Cle <br />Elum and 2 miles northwest of Ellensburg.