YAKIMA – Gov. Chris Gregoire declared a statewide wildfire emergency Tuesday, opening the door for additional resources for exhausted and depleted fire crews who have been tackling dozens of wildfires across the state in the past week.
In north-central Washington alone, one lightning-sparked blaze was threatening 145 homes about 30 miles south of the Canadian border.
The proclamation, for all 39 Washington counties, allows state agencies to spend money and resources to aid local firefighting efforts. It also authorizes the state’s adjutant general to mobilize members of the Washington National Guard and the Washington State Guard to aid in firefighting efforts if necessary.
Gregoire said she was taking the step as a precaution.
“Current wildfires need to be contained, but at the same time, we are looking at weather forecasts that project the possibility of more wildfires for some time to come,” she said in a statement.
The Tunk Grade fire has scorched 25 square miles of grass, brush and scattered pine trees in Okanogan County. Authorities on Tuesday restricted traffic for hours on Highway 20 to one lane with a pilot car escort for 5 miles east of Tonasket because the fire had burned close to the road, said Okanogan County emergency manager Scott Miller.
About 145 homes were threatened by the blaze, but only a handful were ordered to evacuate, fire information officer Scott Crawford said. About 370 firefighters were on the scene. The fire was 15 percent contained Tuesday.
The fire destroyed one structure, but it was not immediately known if it was a home or an outbuilding.
To the east, eight lightning-sparked fires were burning in heavy timber in the Colville National Forest. They ranged in size from one-tenth of an acre to 200 acres, but three were in mop-up stages Tuesday.
No structures were threatened, but the U.S. Forest Service closed Davis Lake campground, and some trails and roads in the Silver Creek, Bulldog Cabin Creek and South Fork Boulder Creek areas.
The Tolo fire, started Saturday by lightning in North Cascades National Park, had burned about 100 acres in a steep, wooded area. It was burning about 15 miles northwest of Stehekin but the town was not affected.
The state’s largest fires in south-central Washington continued to burn Tuesday, but firefighters had made significant progress.
The Six Prong and Wood Gulch fires were burning about 10 miles southeast of Bickleton, but both were 95 percent contained. A third fire burning on the nearby Hanford Reach National Monument was 85 percent contained.
Fire crews estimate the three fires have burned about 72 square miles of grass, sagebrush and farm fields – an estimate that was reduced after more accurate mapping. About 310 firefighters were on the scene in Benton County.
Fire crews there have been stretched thin by a spate of fires in recent days, said Fire Chief Mike Spring of Benton County Fire District 4.
The district currently has crews up north aiding on the Tunk Grade blaze, yet firefighters were still able to quickly douse a new fire Tuesday on Red Mountain, north of Benton City. The fire started when a man accidentally dropped his lighter.
Firefighters held the blaze to about 5 acres, though it briefly threatened some homes, Spring said.
“We cover 55 square miles and about 15,000 people,” Spring said. “We’re giving until we’re bleeding, trying to help everybody.
“People just need to know that it is extremely dry, and that local fire departments are run ragged,” he said.
In Chelan County, an East Wenatchee man has been charged with a misdemeanor fireworks violation after authorities said a smoke bomb used during a game of paintball started a fire that burned 5,209 acres northwest of Wenatchee.
Daniel P. Griffin, 22, has been charged with unlawful discharge of fireworks, a gross misdemeanor, Chelan County Sheriff Mike Harum told The Wenatchee World.
The maximum penalty is one year in jail and a $5,000 fine. Should Griffin be ordered to pay fire containment costs, that tab was $1.92 million.
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