Western Wildfires Update: Large Fire Threatens Washington Resort Town

Associated Press
Published: August 18, 2015

A large wildfire has threatened a central Washington resort town for days, pushing thousands of residents from their homes, which may still be in danger.
More than 155 square miles of land have been torched by the blazes near Chelan, and about 75 homes have been destroyed, including a 400-square foot cabin owned by  Washington State Sen. Linda Evans Parlette.
Mandatory evacuation orders remain in place for more than 2,900 people in the Chelan area.
The blazes near Chelan, about 180 miles east of Seattle, are burning through grass, brush and timber, fire spokeswoman Janet Pearce said. The uncontained fires were being battled by more than 900 firefighters, she said.
"Today our focus is on structure protection," she said Monday.
(MORE: California's Giant Sequoia at Risk?)

Air tankers established lines to keep the flames from reaching downtown Chelan, fire officials said.
The flames come in the midst of the summer tourist season in the scenic town located along Lake Chelan in the Cascade Range.
But lots of tourists left Chelan after the fires broke out on Friday, said Mike Steele, director of the Lake Chelan Chamber of Commerce. It's too early to determine the economic impact, but Steele said it would be significant.
"We're working hard to get our feet back on the ground," Steele said, noting that many of the people who would serve tourists have either had to leave or lost homes.
"We'll be welcoming visitors back here very shortly," Steele said. "That's our goal."
Here is an update on some of the large fires burning throughout the West.

Military Mobilized To Fight Fires

For the first time since 2006, the National Interagency Fire Center (NIFC) in Boise, Idaho has requested active duty military personnel to serve as firefighters to assist with wildfire suppression efforts, the IFC said in a statement Monday afternoon. Two hundred soldiers from the 17th Field Artillery Brigade, 7th Infantry Division, Army will be sent to a fire north of Republic, a town in central Washington, about 30 miles south of the Canadian border.
There are currently some 95 large wildfires spread over about 1.1 million acres in Oregon, Washington, Idaho, Montana, California, Nevada, and Colorado. Weather and fuel conditions are predicted to continue to be conducive to wildfire ignitions and spread for the next several weeks.

Idaho

Strong winds continued to fuel wildfires ravaging across Idaho on Monday, where multiple blazes have resulted in the destruction of 42 homes and at least 79 buildings up north near the town of Kamiah.
Currently, 15 large wildfires are burning in Idaho, blackening nearly 545 square miles as of Monday, according to the Boise-based National Interagency Fire Center. However, so many other smaller blazes are burning in Idaho that officials even officially named one the "Not Creative Fire" after trying to keep track of multiple wildfires starts over the weekend.
Near Kamiah, more than 700 firefighters along with 40 fire engines and four helicopters are fighting the blazes trying to protect homes. But residents along an 11-mile section of U.S. Highway 12 have been told to be ready to flee. The group of lightning-caused fires has scorched about 70 square miles of mainly forest and is 15 percent contained.
(MORE: Multi-Day Severe Weather Threat Ahead)
Wind patterns near Kamiah were expected to slow down slightly on Monday, giving firefighters a break from the previously constant 25-mph gusts that pushed the fire dangerously close to homes, said Ryan Greendeer, a spokesman for the Clearwater Complex fire.
"But naturally, we are a little bit wary of what's going to happen," Greendeer said.
The large concentration of wildfires not only in Idaho but also in Oregon, Washington and Montana has resulted in prolonged unhealthy air quality for counties in southwestern and northern Idaho, according to the Idaho Department of Environmental Quality. Primarily, people with lung and heart diseases are at a greater risk to ozone exposure.
The agency has also enforced mandatory bans on outdoor burning and heating homes with wood.

California

A surge in winds brought new life to a wildfire on California's Central Coast, driving hundreds of people from their homes.
The renewed power of the blaze bucked a statewide trend of calming fires that came with cooler weather that was expected to continue into the week, according to the National Weather Service.
The wildfire burning north of San Luis Obispo along the Cuesta Grade segment of U.S. 101 grew to 2000 acres and forced the evacuation of hundreds of homes, state fire officials said in a statement.
A thousand firefighters had the blaze 10 percent contained.
(MORE: Eye-Opening Numbers Reveal California's Intense Battle with Dangerous 2015 Fire Season)

Progress was reported on many of the state's active fires.
In Lake and Napa counties, a 39-square-mile blaze in Jerusalem Valley was 95 percent contained after destroying nine homes. Smoke drifted south to San Francisco Bay on Sunday, marring vistas.
The fire is the second of two blazes that have charred land near dry Lower Lake. The first one, which was contained Friday after more than two weeks, destroyed 43 homes.
In Southern California, crews working through the night stopped the spread of two Los Angeles County fires that erupted Sunday and together burned several structures, charred hundreds of acres of dry brush and led to the arson arrest of one person.
A 45-year-old transient man plead not guilty to arson, in connection with a brush fire near a riverbed in Montebello. The fire was 80 percent contained at 370 acres as of Tuesday morning.
To the north, a 300-acre Angeles National Forest fire that burned six buildings at an abandoned rehabilitation center near Castaic Lake was 75 percent contained.  Four firefighters have been relieved due to minor injuries.
Elsewhere in the same forest, a fire that broke out Friday in the San Gabriel Mountains north of suburban Glendora was 84 percent contained after burning 2½-square miles.

Colorado

Lightning storms across northwest Colorado are being blamed for several wildfires, including one north of Craig that was estimated at more than 1,000 acres. The Bureau of Land Management says no injuries have been reported and one home was evacuated.  It was 80 percent contained Monday.
The Northwest Colorado Fire Management Unit says nine fires were ignited Saturday.
Firefighters say the fires were pushed in multiple directions by erratic winds from passing storms.

Montana

So many wildfires have ignited across the Northern Rockies this month that fire officials are allowing some that might be suppressed under normal circumstances to burn because manpower and equipment are committed elsewhere.
There were 86 active fires burning across Montana and Idaho as of Monday, and seven in Montana were listed as unstaffed due to a lack of resources, according to the Northern Rockies Coordination Center. All seven are small fires burning in remote areas in northwestern Montana.
"Every fire engine out there is on a fire," coordination center spokeswoman Liz Slown said. "Everything's being used and everything's being cycled through as quickly as possible."
Fire officials are watching those fires and will reallocate resources if they pose a threat to public safety, she said. Also, Montana Gov. Steve Bullock declared a state of emergency over the weekend that will free up the Montana National Guard and additional state resources to help fight the fires.
Last week's hot weather and lightning-packed storms helped ignite dozens of new fires in drought-parched areas of western Montana from east of Dillon to the Canadian border.
The new starts raised the national priority level for the region — which includes Idaho, Montana and parts of North Dakota and South Dakota — to the highest point on the 1-5 scale, Slown said.
"The fires in the Northwest have first priority, we have second priority," she said. "Even though we have been moved up to a higher priority, there are just so many resources."