Fire clears brush, provides training at Port of Moses Lake

MOSES LAKE — The small brush fire at the Grant County International Airport on Saturday afternoon was part of a planned training exercise.

“It was a controlled burn,” said Rich Mueller, director of operations for the Port of Moses Lake. “It’s good training for firefighters, and it makes the airfield less attractive to wildlife.”

Mueller said port officials planned to burn “several hundred acres” of brush on the 3,500-acre airport, something the port does every year. The first was on the north end of the airport, near the old assault runway — frequently used by C-17 crews for short-runway takeoff and landing practice — south of the Takata and General Dynamics facilities.

Because the shape of airport’s runways and their concrete construction enclose a fair amount of scrubland, Mueller said fires can frequently be set and “herded” so they will put themselves out.

“It’s part of what we do, at least at our airport,” he said.

The wildlife issue is an important one, and Mueller said the brush clearing doesn’t focus on any one type of critter that might call the brush between the runways home.

“We focus on all kinds, it’s the circle of life,” he said. “It reduced insects like grasshoppers, birds like the grasshoppers, and other things like the birds.”

While the fire was planned, and the Port’s fire department clearly in control, Mueller said there were contingencies if things got out of hand.

“It’s a relatively safe exercise, and we have good mutual aid with Grant County if we need it,” he said.

Charles H. Featherstone can be reached via email at countygvt@columbiabasinherald.com