CHELAN — Fire officials are hoping calmer winds Sunday will aid fire crews using air tankers, helicopters and bulldozers to attack several large fires burning in the Chelan area that have destroyed more than 50 structures.
Fire incident spokesman Wayne Patterson said Sunday that more fire crews, including from the Washington National Guard, are being mobilized to fight six fires burning in the area.
Together, the Reach, Wolverine and other blazes in the area have scorched more than 155 square miles, forced about 1,500 residents to flee their homes and caused power outages.
“It has helped tremendously,” Patterson said. “If we had the same winds from Saturday, we would have double the acreage that we have now.”
On Saturday, winds were blowing at 15 to 20 mph, he said. Sunday morning, they were down to 5 to 10 mph.
“Now we are at the point of fighting fires on a lot of different fronts,” Patterson added. “We have strategies in place and crews in place to start moving from structure protection to trying to attack the fires.”
Patterson said air tankers have established lines to keep the flames from reaching downtown Chelan, a popular central Washington resort town. Helicopters have been dipping into Lake Chelan to pull up water to battle blazes north of the lake.
On Saturday, 150 more personnel arrived to fight the fire, putting the total personnel count at 727, said Patterson, information officer for Pacific Northwest Incident Management 2, a Type 1 team that is currently based in Chelan Falls.
That team is managing six fires: Wolverine, Reach, First Creek, Black Canyon, Squaw Creek and Blankenship.
Good news also is coming from Holden Village, where fire crews have set backburns to slow the progress of the Wolverine Fire around the village. “We are optimistic that by Monday, we may start thinking mop-up there,” he said.
Lighter winds Sunday helped the more than 700 people battling the complex of fires.
“We’re able to start taking the battle to the fire rather than playing defense,” Patterson said.
The Chelan Public Utility District said more than 9,000 customers were without power Saturday after the fire destroyed more than 30 poles supporting transmission lines. Crews were working to replace them in areas where it was safe to do so, the utility said.
The hospital in Chelan evacuated some of its patients to a hospital in Wenatchee, 50 miles south, but the emergency room remained open, Chelan County Emergency Management officials said. Several nursing homes and assisted-living centers also chose to evacuate, officials said.
As crews hoped to make progress Sunday, people dealt with the scope of the damage.
Terri Raffetto was at a community center that had been converted into a shelter in Entiat, about 20 miles south of Chelan.
She said she fled her trailer Sunday with her two dogs as flames approached.
“Completely destroyed,” Raffetto said.
Fire crews across the Northwest were hoping to secure lines around other wildfires burning in Idaho and Oregon.
Several wildfires burning in northwest Idaho have scorched more than 80 square miles as of Sunday morning.
“We’re at the point in the summer … where everything is going,” said Mike Cole, spokesman for the team managing the Lawyer fire and four other blazes. “This is the time of year that it happens.”
The fire burning near Kamiah, Idaho, has destroyed at least 50 homes and 75 outbuildings as the fire rips through private and public lands. Sheriff’s deputies are still working to identify all the structures that have burned.
“There’s a potential for more loss of property, without a doubt,” Cole said.
“We have so much fire in the landscape and we’ve had so much lightning move through in the last few days. We’re picking up spot fires from lightning. Every day we’re trying to find out where the fire’s edge is,” he added.
Ranchers, farmers and loggers have been using their own heavy equipment to help establish fire lines, Cole said.
State officials cancelled visits at the North Idaho Correction Institution in Cottonwood Sunday. The facility isn’t threatened by wildfire but state officials said they wanted to allow staff to support families and neighbors in the Kamiah area.
Also in Idaho, the Soda Creek fire burning about 8 miles northeast of Jordan Valley, Oregon, has already torched more than 440 square miles.
Idaho Gov. C.L. “Butch” Otter issued a disaster declaration for Owyhee County after touring the devastation Saturday. The declaration means farmers and others affected by the fire can get economic assistance.
In Oregon, the Canyon Creek Complex burning south of John Day has destroyed at least 26 homes, though officials say the number may go up as crews make assessments. The fire was estimated at more than 53 square miles on Sunday morning.
Dean Elliot and his wife evacuated Friday just minutes before that ripped down a ridge and along the creek where they lived.
As he surveyed the smoldering remains of his home of 53 years, he told Oregon Public Broadcasting: “You could have put all the water you had on this. And it would have never slowed it down.”
The report includes information from The Wenatchee World.
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