SEATTLE — A wildfire ignited by a plane crash that killed two people in a rugged area of northern Washington state chased hundreds of people from their homes Friday and burned 10 to 12 buildings, including residences, authorities said.
The Federal Emergency Management Agency planned to send funding to help combat the blaze charring remote, dry land near Oroville, a small town close to the Canadian border. More than 400 people were evacuated, and 660 homes were threatened as winds picked up, officials said.
The 4.7-square-mile fire also posed a risk to roads, bridges, power and gas lines, and several private businesses in a state struggling with drought, which has made the parched terrain combustible.
The blaze just east of the Cascade Range was one of many large wildfires burning across the West, including eight others in Washington state and others in Oregon, Idaho and California. In response, the Washington officials asked for help from the state National Guard.
The federal government said wildfires have been so bad this season that the Forest Service will exhaust its firefighting budget next week and will again have to tap into other programs for more money.
Tory King, a customer service worker at the Princess Center grocery store in downtown Oroville, said smoke has filled the town.
“All we can see here is smoke,” she said.
A Cessna 182 heading from Oroville to Spokane with two people aboard crashed and sparked the fire that spread to the Canadian border, officials said. Crews responding to the blaze discovered the wreckage Thursday and a body inside the aircraft. Investigators found a second body Friday.
Local authorities and officials with the Federal Aviation Administration went to investigate the crash, which was at an elevation of about 3,000 feet. The NTSB, which planned to get there by Saturday, knew the plane’s registration number but was not immediately releasing it or the owner’s name, spokesman Peter Knutson said.
The crash happened in the same remote north-central county as one that a teenager survived in July. It took the girl two days to hike to safety after the crash killed her step-grandparents.
Officials expected high winds in the remote region to fan the flames, said Josie Williams, spokeswoman for the Washington Incident Management Team No. 2. Most of the state is under a red-flag warning, meaning the temperatures are high and the landscape is crispy dry, Department of Natural Resources spokeswoman Janet Pierce said.
An evacuation shelter has been set up at Oroville High School.
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