Thursday, October 1, 2026
For generations, wildfire was something North Central Washington businesses endured.
A bad fire season might mean smoky skies, anxious customers and a difficult summer. Then the smoke would clear, visitors would return and the region would settle back into familiar rhythms.
Today, those rhythms are changing. Utilities are redesigning electrical systems to reduce the chance of sparking catastrophic fires. Insurance companies are rewriting how they evaluate risk, raising premiums and shrinking the number of carriers willing to insure properties in high-risk areas. Downtown business organizations are creating contingency plans for smoke days before smoke ever arrives, while conservation groups are investing in healthier forests years before the next ignition.
Taken individually, those efforts solve different problems. Together, they suggest organizations across North Central Washington are planning for wildfire in ways that would have been unusual even a decade ago. Rather than treating fire as an occasional disruption, businesses and public agencies increasingly see it as a recurring condition that influences everything from infrastructure investments and insurance markets to tourism strategies and long-term economic planning.
Long before the first lightning strike or roadside spark, work is already underway to limit the impact of the next wildfire.
For Ryan Williams, executive director of Cascadia Conservation District, the goal is not simply responding to fires but changing how communities prepare for them.
"Wildfire is here to stay in North Central Washington," Williams said. "We need to work together to adapt our way of life to live with wildfire and to minimize our risk of catastrophic fire."
That preparation often happens quietly. Forest thinning projects, fuel reduction work and homeowner education rarely generate headlines, but each is intended to reduce the economic disruption that follows when fires reach communities.
"The best investment is to be ready for the fire before it gets here," Williams said.
Businesses may never notice a treatment project completed miles from downtown, but they notice when highways remain open longer, evacuations are less severe and communities recover more quickly. In that sense, wildfire mitigation has become economic infrastructure every bit as much as environmental stewardship.
Chelan County PUD has reached a similar conclusion from a different direction.
For General Manager Kirk Hudson, wildfire has become the utility industry's single greatest operational risk.
"This is the biggest risk to utilities right now," Hudson said during a strategic planning presentation this spring. "There is no other risk that's bigger than this one."
That reality has reshaped how the utility thinks about everything from transmission lines to emergency operations.
Among the most visible changes is the development of Public Safety Power Shutoff protocols, allowing electricity to be intentionally de-energized during rare combinations of extreme heat, high winds and critically low humidity before a fire can start.
Hudson acknowledged that shutting off power would inconvenience customers, but said the alternative could be far worse.
"If it hits the thresholds, we're going to turn the power off," he said. "There's no, 'Well, maybe we won't.'"
The utility has spent years building weather-monitoring dashboards, establishing operational thresholds and modifying how parts of its electrical system operate during periods of extreme fire danger. Automatic reclosing devices that would normally attempt to restore power after a brief outage can instead remain open when wildfire conditions are severe, reducing the chance of igniting dry vegetation.
Hudson said the utility is also hardening infrastructure in the county's most fire-prone areas by replacing wood transmission poles with steel and incorporating wildfire risk into long-term planning decisions.
"We're very interested in how we help our communities build resiliency, even if we don't start the fire," he said.
Wildfire is also changing the economics of doing business.
Shayla Winter of Wenatchee Insurance Agency said the conversations she has with customers today are markedly different than they were just a few years ago.
"The biggest question we get right now is: 'What are my options?'" Winter said.
As premiums climb and insurance companies reduce their exposure in wildfire-prone areas, many homeowners and business owners are discovering they have fewer choices than before.
"We see a lot of people looking for new insurance that received a cancellation letter due to high wildfire danger," Winter said.
Companies are conducting more inspections, paying closer attention to defensible space and evaluating vegetation, outbuildings and property maintenance before deciding whether to issue or renew coverage.
Winter said many customers understandably focus on finding the lowest premium, but warned that doing so can create new risks.
"Most people today are very price driven," she said. "They are less interested in good or even comprehensive coverage for their property and just want a lower premium."
She worries some property owners may not realize what they have given up until after a disaster.
"This can be dangerous," Winter said. "Many people may not be able to rebuild their homes."
Wildfire risk is no longer reflected only in hazard maps. It now appears in insurance renewals, commercial operating expenses and the financial calculations businesses make every year.
For Historic Downtown Chelan Association Executive Director Aimee Sheridan, the question is less about preventing wildfire than preparing downtown businesses to operate through its effects.
The organization's Economic Resilience and Disaster Readiness initiative begins with a straightforward observation: wildfire seasons are becoming longer and increasingly disruptive to summer tourism, while downtown businesses remain heavily dependent on visitor spending.
Rather than waiting for smoke to affect visitation, the plan focuses on preparing businesses beforehand. It calls for improving merchants' digital presence, creating pre-approved smoke-event messaging, installing a downtown air-quality monitor, expanding online shopping tools, encouraging local spending and developing indoor events that can be activated when outdoor conditions deteriorate.
Just as importantly, the plan recognizes that perception can become its own economic challenge. Even when local air quality remains acceptable, inaccurate or outdated reports suggesting "Chelan is burning" can discourage visitors and affect bookings long after smoke has cleared.
The strategy reflects a broader shift taking place throughout the region. Preparing for wildfire increasingly means preparing for the business conditions wildfire creates, and Sheridan never intended it to be a plan only for Chelan. When she brought the HDCA’s five-point plan to the Chelan-Douglas Regional Port Authority during a presentation, she offered it up with documentation for any other municipality to use as well.
These are shared challenges, and increasingly, the solutions are being shared as well.
Each organization approaches wildfire from a different direction.
Conservation districts work to reduce future fire intensity. Utilities are redesigning critical infrastructure to operate more safely during extreme conditions. Insurance companies are recalculating the financial cost of wildfire risk. Downtown business organizations are developing ways to keep commerce moving even when smoke affects visitor behavior.
What has changed is not simply how organizations respond to wildfire. It's when they respond.
The investments now happen before the smoke appears. Forests are treated before the next ignition. Utilities harden infrastructure before the next windstorm. Businesses develop continuity plans before the next evacuation. Insurers price tomorrow's risk into today's premiums.
Taken together, those decisions suggest something larger than a changing fire season. They suggest a regional economy that is quietly redesigning itself around the expectation that wildfire is no longer an interruption to business. It has become part of the environment in which business now operates.
Andrew Simpson: 509-433-7626 or andrew@ward.media
Comments
No comments on this item Please log in to comment by clicking here