Crews make progress at Speelyai Fire

Six crews, most composed of inmates, are using chain saws, shovels and, in some cases, explosive “det cord” in the arduous job of encircling a 66-acre fire burning in heavy timber, logging slash and brush on steep, rocky terrain north of Lake Merwin and 10 miles west of Cougar in Cowlitz County.

As of Monday night, crews had cut, dug, chopped and blasted fire lines around 60 percent of the Speelyai Fire, and hoped to have it fully contained Wednesday, said Steve Hartsell, a spokesman for the state Department of Natural Resources.

No one had been reported injured and no structures had been damaged or threatened, although some buildings are within a mile of the blaze.

Several of the 20-person hand crews are staffed by incarcerated inmates, including two crews from Larch Corrections Center in far-east Clark County.

A hot-shot crew called in from Oregon is working the blaze, as is a fire-line explosive crew of specially trained DNR employees who had used 2,000 feet of detonating cord by Monday night.

When activated, det cord blasts out a 2-foot fire-line trench down to mineral soil, Hartsell said.

“You just lay it on the ground and it makes your fire line for you,” he added.

The cord is used in terrain so steep and rocky that it’s too dangerous for the hand crews to work there.

The cause of the blaze remained under investigation Monday night; it’s believed to have started in an area that was logged recently, along a logging road, Hartsell said.

The fire camp is based at Yale Elementary School and employees are using Larch Corrections Center’s mobile kitchen.

“We’re feeding 225 here at the fire camp,” Hartsell said. “We’ve got a good amount of people and resources.”

As of Monday night, it was the only active forest fire in Washington, a boon that made a large number of firefighters available.

Five fire engines, three water tenders and two bulldozers were on hand to help quell the blaze.

The fire was first reported about 2:30 p.m. Saturday. It wasn’t growing Monday.

Officials hope to have the blaze controlled, meaning put out completely, by Friday.

The fire is about three miles north of the intersection where Jack’s Store stood until it burned in 2007, Hartsell said.

Safety warnings

“Forest roads 6600 and A1000 are closed to public travel. The public is asked to stay off the road system for their own safety and firefighters’ safety,” Hartsell said.

Hartsell urged folks who go to forest areas to be careful, especially as high temperatures, low humidity and gusty winds take over during fire season, which is starting now and can run into October, depending on the east wind.

This year’s heavy spring rainfall has resulted in a later start for wildfires, and the Speelyai Fire is about the third large one this year, Hartsell said.

A statewide burn ban is in effect, including for trash burning. Campfires are permitted only in designated camp areas.

The fire is burning mostly on state trust lands that fund schools. It has damaged a valuable plantation of 20-year-old Douglas firs that would have been logged when they were 50 or 60 years old, Hartsell said.