WENATCHEE – Firefighters began building lines Thursday around a wildfire burning in dense, beetle-killed trees near Winthrop.
The Spur Peak Fire had been burning uncontrollably a day earlier, but cooler temperatures and rain Thursday allowed firefighters to begin a direct attack on the blaze about 15 miles north of Winthrop, said Robin DeMario, spokeswoman for the Okanogan-Wenatchee National Forests.
The fire was estimated at 300 acres. Firefighters had not contained the fire Thursday, but they had built some lines around the fire and one of two smaller spot fires north of the main blaze, DeMario said. Both spot fires were about 25 acres in size.
About 165 firefighters were assigned to the fires. No structures were threatened, and no injuries were reported.
The Forest Service closed several roads and trails in the area to protect public safety.
Severe thunderstorms have swept through Eastern Washington this week, with lightning sparking dozens of fires in the region.
Several small spot fires popped up as a result of lightning Thursday, DeMario said. Firefighters snuffed them all while they were less than a quarter-acre in size and also extinguished some holdover fires from lightning in the past three days.
On Wednesday, a wildfire destroyed an abandoned single-wide mobile home about five miles south of Ephrata. No one was hurt in the fire, which burned about 900 acres, said Battalion Chief Kyle Foreman of the Ephrata Fire Department.
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