Lightning triggers fires in Eastern Washington
Published 9:00 pm Wednesday, July 5, 2006
WENATCHEE – Lightning sparked dozens of fires in the state this week, including a roughly 200-acre blaze near Winthrop.
The Spur Peak Fire was burning out of control in dense, beetle-killed trees about 15 miles north of Winthrop on Wednesday evening.
“It’s burning way too actively for our comfort,” Ed Hutton, a dispatcher for the Central Washington Interagency Communications Center in East Wenatchee, said earlier Wednesday. “We had to pull people off it yesterday (Tuesday) because it wasn’t acting like a normal fire for this time of year.”
Forest Service spokeswoman Debbie Kelly said six smokejumpers dropped into the site on Tuesday, but were pulled out. Two loads of retardant did little to slow the blaze through dead timber, Kelly said.
The National Weather Service has issued several severe thunderstorm warnings in Eastern Washington this week. A wind and lightning storm blew through the Spur Peak fire area Wednesday evening, said Gabe Jasso, a Forest Service coordinator on the fire.
About 120 firefighters have been assigned to the blaze but were at a base camp about 10 miles away Wednesday evening as fire coordinators assessed how best to attack the fire, Jasso said.
No structures were threatened by the blaze.
An earlier storm unleashed 924 lightning strikes in the Okanogan and Wenatchee National Forests from Tuesday morning to Wednesday morning, said Robin DeMario, spokeswoman for the two forests.
Lightning on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday sparked more than 50 fires in the area, DeMario said.
Except for Spur Peak, none of the fires was larger than 5 acres, she said.
