OLYMPIA, Wash. (AP) -- Gov. Christine Gregoire earned a ''red card'' Thursday that allows her to visit wildfire lines this summer, passing a fire fitness test by completing a brisk one-mile hike and then correctly using a pup-tent-like emergency fire shelter.
''It was claustrophobic; it was scary,'' she said when she emerged from the shelter.
''It'd take a lot of discipline to get me to stay in one of those things'' if overtaken by a wildfire, she said. ''My natural reaction would be to run.''
The state's top forest fire expert, Mark Kahley of the Department of Natural Resources, said it's unlikely the governor would ever get in a situation so dangerous she'd need what he called the equivalent of an airplane ejector seat.
''It will get hot, it will be noisy and it will save your life,'' he said of the emergency shelter.
Gregoire was the first Washington governor to go through the firefighters' ''work capacity'' test. It's required even for a governor who wants to visit the front lines.
Gregoire said she asked for training and certification a few months ago when it looked like the Pacific Northwest could face its worst fire season.
''Hopefully with the (wetter) weather conditions, we can avoid that,'' she told reporters. ''But I want everyone to be ready ... and it is important that I say that safety is first.''
The petite Gregoire, a breast cancer survivor who is peppy and fit at 58, went through the whole test in high spirits. Dressed in jogging pants and a lightweight blouse, she and an entourage tromped down the Chehalis Western bike-and-jogging trail at Woodard Bay outside of town.
She was accompanied by her husband, Mike, and Maj. Gen. Timothy Lowenberg of the Washington National Guard and Department of Natural Resources and governor's office staff. She talked the whole way, keeping up a steady, long stride and never taking a breather so she could complete the one-mile course in 14:53.
Gregoire wasn't winded, and plunged right into the fire-shelter part of the test. She beat her husband in setting hers set up in about 30 seconds.
She said she's game to personally visit a fire line, if circumstances dictate, in part to assess firsthand whether to activate the National Guard or call for crews and equipment from adjacent states.
Gregoire and Lowenberg conducted a ''tabletop'' exercise at the state Emergency Operations Center at Camp Murray earlier this week, with computer simulations showing how fire crews would respond to different types of fires in different terrain.
The governors of Washington, Oregon, Idaho and Montana, meeting in Spokane recently, have agreed to backstop each other when necessary.
''We're about as ready as we can be right now,'' Gregoire said.
The DNR is the main on-call firefighting unit, with 1,200 crewmen who fight fires on 12 million acres of state and private land. Lowenberg said convicts from the Department of Corrections and private contractors also provide help and that 500 guardsmen are standing by. He said commitments in Iraq are easing so that the state will have enough personnel to fight fires.
As of Wednesday, 215 fires have been reported in the state this year.
