Three killed fighting Washington wildfires
Three firefighters have been killed and three to four more have been injured while battling raging wildfires, a sheriff in north- central Washington state says.
Okanogan County Sheriff Frank Rogers said Wednesday evening the deaths in a wildfire near the town of Twisp had been confirmed. He said he was not immediately releasing details.
Gov. Jay Inslee said his heart breaks over the loss of life and that conditions remain extremely dangerous.
Authorities urged people in the north- central Washington towns of Twisp and Winthrop to evacuate Wednesday afternoon because of a fast- moving wildfire, one of many burning throughout the Northwest.
The Okanogan County emergency management department issued the order for the towns, which combined have a population of about 1,300.
Firefighters braced for high winds in the forecast through Friday that threatened to stoke wildfires burning across eastern Washington.
The National Weather Service issued a red flag warning for the eastern portion of the state.
Officials said temperatures will climb above 32 C and relative humidity will drop as low as 14 per recent.
Wildfires burning in Okanogan County had already forced the evacuation of the small town of Conconully, about 30 kilometres northwest of Omak. Fire officials said the evacuation order for the town of about 200 people was issued Tuesday night.
The Chelan Complex of wildfires grew a bit Wednesday to 280 square kilometres, and continued to threaten the resort town of Chelan in central Washington.
“We’ve got another huge wind event for the next two days,” said fire spokeswoman Sarah Saarloos. “We’ve got a lot of fire on the ground and we’re looking at a perfect storm of increased fire danger.”
The Chelan Complex was 50 per cent contained on Wednesday and more than 1,100 firefighters continued to build containment lines and protect structures, officials said.
Six helicopters and two airplanes were assisting firefighters.
Officials said the fire has destroyed at least 73 structures in Chelan and Douglas counties.
Sandy Staples- Hector, 75, of Redmond, said a home her parents built in 1967 was destroyed by the flames of the Chelan Complex.
“It was peaceful and beautiful there,” she said.
“You could have a glass of wine on the patio and the stars would be out and it was so beautiful.”
Now the house is just rubble, she said.
“The fireplace is still there,” she said.
“You see parts of lawn chairs, washers and dryers ... things you would never think would burn.” She said they would rebuild. Fire managers are looking for help wherever they can find it and have called in 200 active- duty military troops to fight the flames.
National Guard troops set controlled burns outside Chelan as helicopters dropped water. More than 1,000 people worked to protect homes from the lightningsparked blazes that began there last week, have burned more than 400 square kilometres and destroyed an estimated 75 buildings.
“Nationally, the system is pretty tapped,” said Rob Allen, the deputy incident commander for the fires around Chelan. “Everything is being used right now, so competition for resources is fierce.”
In the Rockies, so many wildfires have ignited this month that officials are letting some that might be suppressed under normal circumstances burn because manpower and equipment are committed elsewhere.