A patch of burning vegetation beside a Washington road was quickly overwhelmed after firefighters arrived with an unusual piece of equipment.
Video shared by Kittitas County Fire Protection District 6 shows a fire apparatus approaching the flames before directing a powerful stream of water across the burning area.
The water comes from a nozzle mounted directly to the front of the truck. Firefighters call the device a monitor, although it resembles a water cannon.
The department did not announce the fire’s precise location, cause or total size. Its footage documents the initial attack but does not show the entire response.
The Fire Disappeared Beneath a Wall of Water
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The official fire district video provides a first-person view from the apparatus as it reaches the roadside fire.
The front-mounted monitor opens, sending water sweeping across the burning vegetation. Visible flames rapidly disappear beneath the stream. “The call came in. The crew rolled out,” the department wrote before joking that the fire “folded like a cheap lawn chair.”
A separate official post identified the response as an automatic mutual-aid call. The video ends following the knockdown. It does not show whether firefighters subsequently used handlines or performed additional cleanup and inspection.
The Monitor Allowed an Immediate Attack
A monitor is a nozzle secured to a fixed base on a fire truck or another firefighting platform. Mounting it to the bumper allows a crew to direct water toward a roadside fire while remaining with the apparatus. The department did not identify the monitor’s manufacturer, model, flow rate or nozzle setting.
Kittitas County Fire Protection District 6 serves several Upper Kittitas County communities, including Ronald, Lake Cle Elum and Salmon La Sac. Its official apparatus inventory includes engines, tanker-pumpers and four-wheel-drive brush trucks equipped for structural and wildland fires.
A Countywide Burn Ban Was in Effect
The district maintains automatic mutual-aid agreements with the Cle Elum and Roslyn fire departments. Those agreements allow neighboring departments to assist one another under established dispatch procedures.
Kittitas Valley Fire and Rescue says the Kittitas County fire marshal prohibited open burning beginning July 8, including recreational campfires and yard-waste piles.