WINTHROP – About 550 soldiers from Fort Lewis are being sent to fires burning 83,436 acres in north-central Washington.
Soldiers boarded buses Monday headed for two large fires burning between Winthrop and Conconully in the remote Chewuch Valley.
A shortage of local firefighting crews and unfavorable weather forecasts prompted the National Interagency Fire Center in Boise, Idaho, to request help last week. Soldiers are expected be deployed for about two months, said Army Maj. Cathy Wilkinson, a 1st Corps plans and operations officer.
On Monday, crews had dug lines around 25 percent of the Tripod and Spur Peak fires, which officials said had not merged, as they originally estimated earlier this month.
The fires, totaling about 130 square miles, are in the Okanogan and Wenatchee National Forest, with the northeast corner spread in the Loomis State Forest.
There are more than 2,285 firefighters assigned to the blazes caused by July lightning strikes.
In central Washington, the Flick Creek fire near Stehekin on Lake Chelan was 50 percent trailed Monday at about 4,300 acres, or about 6.7 square miles. Almost two dozen firefighters were on the scene.
Crews were managing the 4,468-acre Tinpan fire along the Entiat River trail as a wildland-use fire, meaning it will be allowed to burn naturally unless it threatens to run outside preset boundaries.
The fire has burned 40 miles northwest of the town of Entiat in the Glacier Peak Wilderness.
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