Five fires scorch eastern Washington in four days

“Last year in April, we had 225 fires just for the month of April and that’s early spring; it’s our wet time usually, and then as we know, it rapidly escalated throughout the following months to the point of having over 1,875 fires last year,” she said. “So I’d say this year today we have had a really good low fire season.”

But five wildfires destroyed thousands of acres in Washington starting Monday and Level 3 evacuations — go now — were ordered for dozens of residents. Additionally, a weather system next week could bring thunderstorms and wind.

Two large fires ignited Wednesday afternoon — the Cow Canyon Fire, 13 miles southwest of Ellensburg, and Williams Lake Fire, 10 miles south of Cheney. The Vantage Highway Fire has been burning 5 miles west of Vantage since Monday, and the fast-moving Lind Fire prompted most of the town’s evacuation Thursday afternoon. The Riparia Fire also ignited Thursday and was moving swiftly.

The 2,000-acre Lind Fire was contained late Thursday, according to an Adams County Sheriff’s Office social media post. But that was not before destroying about 10 homes and a Grant County fire engine, said Russ Lane, DNR’s wildfire division manager. Dozens of people were evacuated, but given the all-clear to return home, the sheriff’s office post stated.

The Vantage Highway Fire was at about 30,000 acres Friday morning, Lane said, and was threatening a wind farm. It was 35% contained. “That’s going to get some priority today,” he said.

The approximately 6,000-acre Cow Canyon Fire was 10% contained, with “numerous residents threatened,” he said, but “some really coordinated action” would take place.

The Williams Lake Fire is about 1,500 acres and 30% contained. A Spokane County Fire District 3 engine was burned.

“They’re pretty optimistic that that’s going to progress towards containment, which is a really, really nice effort on that fire,” Lane said.

The Riparia Fire began Thursday afternoon in Whitman County near Central Ferry. About 30 homes were under Level 2 and 3 evacuation notices. It grew to 6,000 acres overnight, he said.

“That fire is going to be a challenging fire down in the banks of the Snake River and some really steep complex terrain,” he said.

“There’s a lot of initial attack going on that’s getting high success and that’s because of the resources we do have available,” he said. “So we’re catching literally dozens of fires in that small to moderate size range that typically don’t make the news.”

DNR also said it has added more staff this year, with 691 firefighters, compared to last year’s 670, and was better-prepared, especially because those crews hadn’t been battling blazes for months.