Mount Rainier National Park to ban campfires

Mount Rainier National Park is banning campfires and the use of wood or charcoal grills beginning Friday, citing heightened wildfire risk. 

The National Park Service said in a news release this week that the ban would be in place until further notice, with no clear end date. It bars campfires and igniting “wood, briquettes, or any fuel in fire pits, fire pans and barbeque grills.”

Gas-powered cooking stoves and heating devices or lanterns using bottled fuel will still be allowed, assuming the devices can be turned off.

Agency officials wrote that the ban is meant to limit the risk of human-caused wildfires during a time of high fire danger. 

Fireworks and other incendiary devices are always prohibited on federal lands. The park service urges people who see smoke or flames in the park or nearby to call 911 or notify a park ranger.

No wildfires were burning within the national park as of Thursday. A handful of other wildfires are burning in the Cascade Range, the largest of which is the Sourdough Fire.

That blaze, which straddles the southern border of North Cascades National Park, had torched more than 2,900 acres as of Thursday.