CLE ELUM — The seven chimpanzees at Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest near Cle Elum are OK, but a spokeswoman says they seem bewildered by the smoke in the air and changes in their routine from a wildfire that burned within a couple hundred feet of their building.
Outreach director Diana Goodrich says humans were advised to evacuate as fire threatened the sanctuary Monday, but she and her husband J.B. Mulcahy, the director of operations, stayed overnight as firefighters protected the building.
The power went off, and they were unable to pump water from the well, so they had to deliver drinking water to the chimps by hand.
Goodrich says the fire burned a couple of trees within sight of the building and some of the grass in a 2-acre outdoor area.
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