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Wildfires spur evacuations in central Washington

High temperatures, winds add to danger in Western states

The Columbian
Published: September 10, 2012, 5:00pm

Crews worked Monday to finish containing a fire near White Salmon and fight a new fire near Mount Adams.

The new fire, called the Cascade Creek Fire, was started by a lightning strike in the Mount Adams Wilderness Area.

The Cascade Creek Fire burned an estimated 1,365 acres of heavy and dead lodgepole pine Sunday. Forty hikers were evacuated and four were airlifted out by helicopter, according to a Gifford Pinchot National Forest release. A number of trails are closed, along with the 8031 and 8040 roads.

Meanwhile, evacuation orders were lifted Monday morning in the Highway 141 fire between White Salmon and Husum. Demobilization of firefighters will start today, spokeswoman Mary Bean said. The fire is 85 percent contained.

Crews worked Monday to finish containing a fire near White Salmon and fight a new fire near Mount Adams.

The new fire, called the Cascade Creek Fire, was started by a lightning strike in the Mount Adams Wilderness Area.

The Cascade Creek Fire burned an estimated 1,365 acres of heavy and dead lodgepole pine Sunday. Forty hikers were evacuated and four were airlifted out by helicopter, according to a Gifford Pinchot National Forest release. A number of trails are closed, along with the 8031 and 8040 roads.

Meanwhile, evacuation orders were lifted Monday morning in the Highway 141 fire between White Salmon and Husum. Demobilization of firefighters will start today, spokeswoman Mary Bean said. The fire is 85 percent contained.

WENATCHEE — Crews in central Washington and Wyoming worked Monday to protect homes from two of the many wildfires burning across the West as a destructive fire season stretches into September with no relief expected from the weather anytime soon.

Winds and temperatures remain high in parts of the region, worrying officials who had hoped cooler temperatures and moisture would eventually tamp down the threat. The National Weather Service issued red-flag warnings for wide swaths of eastern Washington and Oregon, Idaho, Montana and all of Wyoming, meaning conditions could exacerbate blazes.

In Washington state, rains that fell in the Seattle area after a 48-day dry stretch didn’t make it over the Cascade Mountains that divide the state’s western and eastern halves. And the forecast was for gusts that could fan the flames of dozens of blazes.

Only a shed has been lost near Wenatchee, and no injuries have been reported at what appeared to be the most threatening of many wildfires sparked by lightning in the state Saturday.

Residents of about 180 homes on the west side of Wenatchee, about 140 miles east of Seattle, were told to evacuate Sunday, Wenatchee police Sgt. John Kruse said. And a shelter was set up at a church because of the small blaze that continued to burn in the hills. It was so windy that newly arriving crews struggled to set up their tents.

Connie Beck of Wenatchee was ready to get herself, her things and her dog out of harm’s way if needed, but hoped crews would stop the fire.

“I packed my pictures, my recipe box and a couple of days’ worth of clothes, and Mollie,” she said, pointing to her Dachshund.

Ed Farrar has a home overlooking the Wenatchee Valley. He said the hillside last burned nearly 20 years ago, but he was paralyzed from the waist down in a bicycle accident four years ago and has to be more wary.

“It’s a different kind of preparedness,” Farrar said. “I have to depend on friends a lot more than I did before.”

Meanwhile, other wildfires continue burning across the West:

• Southeast of Portland, people camping and hiking near a blaze spreading in the Deschutes National Forest near Sisters were evacuated as gusty winds whipped the fire through dead trees.

The fire area was estimated at about 3 square miles, or 2,000 acres. Four vehicles at a trailhead were destroyed Sunday.

• In Washington state, other fires that apparently started over the weekend burned more than 11,000 acres of sagebrush and grass, and were threatening homes near Grand Coulee Dam in Douglas and Grant counties. Another fire burned 200 acres of sagebrush and grass near Odessa in Lincoln County.

As many as 80 fires along the east slopes of the Cascades were set by Saturday night lightning strikes, the Department of Natural Resources said. Most remained small. The state Emergency Operations Center was activated Sunday evening and dispatched four interagency fire management teams to help local firefighters and coordinate state assistance.

• In Wyoming, authorities evacuated 500 people from homes and cabins as a wildfire about 10 miles southeast of Casper quickly grew.

The Sheep Herder Hill Fire started Sunday and burned at least six structures overnight. State Forester Bill Crapser wasn’t sure if any of the structures were homes but said even more buildings may have been lost.

The fire had scorched more than 15 square miles of pine forest and sagebrush by Monday afternoon.

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Gov. Matt Mead activated two Wyoming Army National Guard UH-60 Blackhawk helicopters, each with 600-gallon buckets, to dump water on the fire. A total of 12 Wyoming Army and Air National Guard troops were activated, including a liaison to coordinate possible aid to a Jackson-area fire in northwest Wyoming.

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