Now, just this year, there is a much higher interest in wildland fires on the west side of the mountains. This is true from first responders on both sides of the mountains, and the media has picked up on it. Instead of it only being about the arid east, the topic du jour for the moment is fires in the west.
I think that the media has perhaps picked up on messaging coming from the different fire authorities. Here in the Central Puget Sound, there was a huddle of responders considering fires on the west side about a month ago.
One of the impacts of this interest is that I think that fire departments will be less likely to send "the majority" of their wildland brush trucks off to other fires, opting to keep more protection home — just in case.
While the mainstream media has less influence than in the past, this switch in focus is an example that they still have some punch!
See this link for what I wrote about this hazard almost two years ago, Western Washington Not Immune from Wildfire Risk.