<div class="css-s99gbd StoryBodyCompanionColumn" data-testid="companionColumn-0"><div class="css-53u6y8"><p class="css-at9mc1 evys1bk0">Immigration officials conducted an operation at the site of the largest wildfire in Washington State, fire officials said on Wednesday. The incident appeared to be a rare case of federal officials enforcing immigration laws at the site of an emergency.</p><p class="css-at9mc1 evys1bk0">Officials in charge of fighting the Bear Gulch fire in the Olympic National Forest, west of Seattle, said in a brief statement on Wednesday night that they were “aware of a Border Patrol operation” at the site of the fire.</p><p class="css-at9mc1 evys1bk0">“The Border Patrol operation is not interfering with firefighting activity and Bear Gulch firefighters continue to make progress on the fire,” the officials said in their statement.</p><p class="css-at9mc1 evys1bk0">Hours earlier, The Seattle Times <a class="css-yywogo" href="https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/climate-lab/federal-agents-arrest-firefighters-working-on-wa-wildfire/?utm_source=marketingcloud&amp;utm_medium=email&amp;utm_campaign=BNA_082825023013+Federal+agents+arrest+firefighters+working+on+WA+wildfire_8_27_2025&amp;utm_term=" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" title="">reported</a> that two people fighting the blaze had been arrested earlier in the day. It cited interviews with firefighters, whom it did not name, and what it described as video of a confrontation between the firefighters and law enforcement agents.</p></div><aside aria-label="companion column" class="css-ew4tgv"></aside></div><div data-testid="Dropzone-1"></div><div class="css-s99gbd StoryBodyCompanionColumn" data-testid="companionColumn-1"><div class="css-53u6y8"><p class="css-at9mc1 evys1bk0">The fire officials did not say whom the operation had targeted. They referred questions about the operation to a Border Patrol office in Port Angeles, Wash. Federal and state officials did not immediately respond to inquiries about the fire.</p><p class="css-at9mc1 evys1bk0">The blaze in the forest, west of Seattle, was the largest in the state as of Thursday morning, having consumed nearly 9,000 acres.</p><p class="css-at9mc1 evys1bk0">The Seattle Times report said that the federal agents had made the arrests after showing up on Wednesday morning at a site near Lake Cushman where two crews of private contractors had been assigned to cut wood for a local community. The Bear Gulch fire is burning <a class="css-yywogo" href="https://inciweb.wildfire.gov/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" title="">next to the lake</a>.</p><p class="css-at9mc1 evys1bk0">Border enforcement operations do not normally occur at active firefighting sites. During the 2021 wildfire season, <a class="css-yywogo" href="https://www.dhs.gov/publication/dhs-statement-safety-and-immigration-enforcement-during-2021-wildfire-season#:~:text=Absent%20exigent%20circumstances%2C%20immigration%20enforcement%20will%20not,or%20water%2C%20or%20registration%20sites%20for%20disaster%2Drelated" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" title="">the Department of Homeland Security said</a> that immigration enforcement would not be conducted in places where disaster and emergency response and relief was being provided, “absent exigent circumstances.”</p></div><aside aria-label="companion column" class="css-ew4tgv"></aside></div><div data-testid="Dropzone-3"></div><div class="css-s99gbd StoryBodyCompanionColumn" data-testid="companionColumn-2"><div class="css-53u6y8"><p class="css-at9mc1 evys1bk0">In some cases, federal immigration agents have assisted firefighters by <a class="css-yywogo" href="https://www.cbp.gov/newsroom/local-media-release/border-patrol-agents-assist-fire-evacuations" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" title="">helping with evacuation efforts</a>.</p></div><aside aria-label="companion column" class="css-ew4tgv"></aside></div><div data-testid="InteractiveBlock-5"><div class="css-fqosqp" data-testid="interactive-block"><a class="css-1f0en3d" href="https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2025/us/wildfire-smoke-air-quality-maps.html"><div class="css-1fnp0wc"><img alt="" src="https://static01.nyt.com/images/2023/06/09/us/2023-06-06-haze-tracker-index/2023-06-06-haze-tracker-index-articleLarge-v2952.jpg"/></div><div class="css-1g3u91s"><h2 class="css-1a9yvhp">Maps: Tracking Air Quality and Smoke From Wildfires in Canada and the U.S.</h2><p class="css-vop5d5">See maps of where smoke is traveling and how harmful the air has become.</p></div></a></div></div><div class="css-s99gbd StoryBodyCompanionColumn" data-testid="companionColumn-3"><div class="css-53u6y8"><p class="css-at9mc1 evys1bk0">The Bear Gulch fire was 13 percent contained of as Wednesday evening, officials <a class="css-yywogo" href="https://www.facebook.com/photo?fbid=122123467640936638&amp;set=pcb.122123468270936638" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" title="">said in an update</a>. Officials have said that the fire, which started in early July, was caused by human activity. The exact cause is under investigation.</p><p class="css-at9mc1 evys1bk0">Parts of Washington State were <a class="css-yywogo" href="https://forecast.weather.gov/wwamap/wwatxtget.php?cwa=usa&amp;wwa=Red%20Flag%20Warning'" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" title="">under a red flag warning</a> early Thursday. Many roads, trails and campfires inside Olympic National Forest were closed.</p></div><aside aria-label="companion column" class="css-ew4tgv"></aside></div><div data-testid="RelatedLinksBlock-7"><div data-testid="lazy-loader"></div></div>