Fire crews were stepping up their attack Monday against wildfires that have destroyed dozens of homes and forced hundreds to flee in Western states.
Calmer weather on Sunday helped firefighters tighten their grip on the blazes, but dry, hot weather is expected in the days ahead.
A look at conditions:
• WASHINGTON
Big wildfires threatened the Lake Chelan resort region of Central Washington on Monday after driving away tourists, destroying a warehouse filled with nearly 2 million pounds of apples and forcing thousands of residents to flee.
The several large fires burning near the town of Chelan have scorched more than 155 square miles and destroyed an estimated 75 homes and businesses Friday and Saturday, officials said. Scores of homes remain threatened, and mandatory evacuation orders remained in effect for more than 2,900 people in the Chelan area.
The Chelan fires were just some of the many destructive blazes burning throughout the Northwest. In northern Idaho, more than 40 homes were lost near the town of Kamiah, and in Oregon a lightning-sparked blaze on the Malheur National Forest has grown to more than 60 square miles and has destroyed at least 26 homes.
So many fires are burning across the West that the National Interagency Fire Center announced Monday that 200 active-duty military troops were being called in to help. They will be sent to a fire on Aug. 23.
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.
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.
The fires also threaten apple orchards and packing warehouses in the heart of the state’s apple belt during what has been a summer of drought in the Northwest.
Chelan Fruit lost one of its major fruit-packing warehouses in Chelan to wildfire on Friday. The warehouse contained 1.8 million pounds of apples and employed about 800 people, said Mac Riggan, director of marketing for the company.
The employees are being sent to Chelan Fruit’s other facilities in the region, Riggan said. “Our other plant in Chelan is fully operational,” he said.
Washington is by far the nation’s largest apple producer, and the industry produced more than 140 million cartons of apples last year, of which perhaps 6 million remain in warehouses, Riggan said.
“It’s not a major loss to the industry,” Riggan said. “It is to us.”
Washington farmers grossed about $2 billion from the apple crop last year, and late-season apples tend to sell at a discount as buyers are waiting for new fruit, he said.
The air was clouded with smoke in Spokane, about 150 miles east of the Chelan fire, on Monday. Air quality was expected to remain in the “unhealthy for sensitive groups” range for at least the next couple of days because of the Chelan fire and other fires, according to the Spokane Regional Health District, which serves the metropolitan area of nearly 500,000 people.
“Smoke from wildfires is especially harmful for those with health conditions like asthma. We recommend that people who are sensitive to poor air quality limit their time outdoors,” said Dr. Joel McCullough, the local health officer.
Meanwhile, the Washington National Guard joined the firefighting efforts in the state after a request for assistance from the state Department of Natural Resources.
Two Black Hawk helicopters arrived Friday, and five 20-person hand crews arrived Sunday evening to join 350 firefighters battling one of the state’s most active fires, Cougar Creek, on the southeastern slopes of Mount Adams.
“The Guard’s help now is vital,” said Mary Verner, Washington state DNR’s deputy for wildfire.
• OREGON
Better weather helped firefighters battling wildfires in eastern Oregon.
Though the fires are far from contained, higher humidity and lighter winds slowed the spread of the flames Sunday.
The lightning-sparked Canyon Creek fire on the Malheur National Forest south of John Day has grown to more than 60 square miles and has destroyed at least 26 homes. Roughly 300 firefighters were assigned to the blaze over the weekend, along with structural fire crews from around the state, and more are expected.
Mike Billman, a forester, said he and his wife could see the fire from their house in Canyon City on Friday, and were packing their belongings as intense south winds pushed the fire through a canyon toward the town of about 700 people. The homes that burned were scattered in the canyon. By the time the winds shifted Friday evening, the fire was on the edge of Canyon City, located about 2 miles south of John Day.
“There’s just nothing they can do if it’s blowing that hard,” he said. “
By Monday, the fire was burning most intensely in the southeastern corner in the Strawberry Mountains Wilderness, according to the Northwest Interagency Coordination Center website. There were 12 large uncontained wildfires burning in Oregon, and 18 in Washington. The National Fire Preparedness Level has been at 5, the highest level, since Thursday.
South of Baker City, the improved weather helped firefighters make progress on the state’s largest wildfire. The Cornet-Windy Ridge fire has burned through more than 150 square miles and destroyed six homes.
Meanwhile, hundreds of evacuated residents on the Warm Springs Indian Reservation were allowed to return home Sunday as danger eased from the County Line 2 Fire. Containment of the 85-square mile blaze increased to 25 percent.
• IDAHO
Wildfires have destroyed 42 homes and at least 79 outbuildings in northern Idaho near the town of Kamiah.
More than 700 firefighters on Monday 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.
A 70-year-old woman was killed when she fell while preparing to flee from the wildfire, the Idaho County Sheriff’s Department said Saturday. Cheryl Lee Wissler of Adams Grade died Friday from a head injury she suffered when she fell, authorities said.
On the Idaho-Oregon border some 800 firefighters had a giant 443-square-mile wildfire 70 percent contained.
The week-old fire has scorched grassland needed for cattle and primary habitat for sage grouse, a bird under consideration for federal protections.
• CALIFORNIA
A fire that has been burning for more than a week about 100 miles north of San Francisco has destroyed nine homes and charred more than 39 square miles
But firefighters are gaining ground against the wildfire with 85 percent containment reported Monday.
Fire officials say that over the weekend smoke from the fire drifted into the San Francisco Bay Area and especially east of the city, where it was trapped in valleys for several days, causing hazy skies and breathing difficulties for some.
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 burned several structures, charred hundreds of acres of dry brush and led to the arson arrest of one person.
A brush fire sparked near a riverbed in Montebello, a suburb east of downtown Los Angeles, halted operations at an oil field and prompted the evacuation of a park. The fire, which grew to about 200 acres, is 20 percent contained Monday.
Montebello authorities say a 45-year-old man has been arrested on suspicion of arson.
To the north a wildfire that burned buildings at an abandoned rehabilitation center in rural Castaic has charred about 300 acres in Angeles National Forest. It is 10 percent contained.
Meanwhile, a 2-and-a-half-square-mile fire in the forest above the suburbs of Glendora and Azusa is 60 percent contained.
• COLORADO
Lightning across northwestern Colorado is suspected of sparking about 30 fires over the weekend, keeping firefighters running from one blaze to another.
The largest of the wildfires is the Four Mile Fire, which is burning on just over 1,000 acres 20 miles north of Craig. It was 80 percent contained Monday.
Many of the smaller fires have been contained.
The Northwest Colorado Fire Management Unit says over 4,000 lightning strikes hit northwestern Colorado on Saturday and Sunday.
o MONTANA
So many wildfires have ignited across the Northern Rockies this month that fire officials are allowing some that might have been snuffed out under normal circumstances to burn.
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.
More than 100 aircraft, 75 crews and 229 fire engines were being used to fight fires in Montana and Idaho, according to the coordination center. Additional crews and equipment were being used for fires outside the Northern Rockies.
Montana Department of Natural Resources Administrator Bob Harrington said only skeleton crews remained to respond to any new fires, while state officials were relying on local fire departments to respond if there were outbreaks in relatively quiet eastern Montana.
