WENATCHEE – Authorities delivered evacuation notices Thursday to eight cabins on the east shore of Lake Chelan as a wildfire grew in size.
The Flick Creek fire broke out Wednesday, and winds had spread it over about 2,000 acres, or more than three square miles, by midday Thursday. The fire was burning in steep terrain about three miles south of Stehekin in north-central Washington.
Evacuations were ordered for four cabins near Flick Creek and four cabins farther down the lake shoreline, Chelan County Sheriff Mike Harum said.
Residents of another eight cabins also were encouraged to leave. The evacuation orders and recommendations covered an eight-mile stretch of the shoreline and were believed to include only summer cabins, said Tim Manns, a spokesman for the National Park Service.
Half of the fire was burning in the service’s Lake Chelan National Recreation Area and half in the Wenatchee National Forest.
Manns said the fire was believed to have been caused by human activity, because there had been no recent lightning in the area. The fire remained under investigation.
About 30 firefighters were working primarily to protect cabins. Eighty more firefighters had been requested. Two helicopters from the nearby Tinpan fire also dropped water on the blaze.
About 40 miles northwest of Entiat, the Tinpan fire had burned about five square miles of sub-alpine trees since it was started July 7 by lightning. The fire was burning in the headwaters of the Entiat River within the Glacier Peak Wilderness, and firefighters were trying to keep it from spreading beyond the wilderness boundary.
About 330 firefighters continued to battle the Tripod fire six miles northeast of Winthrop. It was sparked by lightning Monday in dead lodgepole pine trees that had been killed by beetles.
That fire had grown to nearly 11 square miles, or about 7,000 acres, by Thursday and was spreading to the northeast. The fire was not contained, but no structures were immediately threatened.
Another fire burning near Lake Cushman near Olympic National Park has burned more than 50 acres and forced the closure of the Staircase campground. About 25 campers were evacuated.
In Oregon, homes were also at risk. About 500 people were told to evacuate their houses Thursday in central Oregon as a forest fire threatened neighborhoods just west of the town of Sisters.
Residents of the Crossroads and Edgington neighborhoods west of Sisters were asked to leave, and a pre-evacuation advisory was given to 1,000 residents in the Tollgate neighborhood. The advisory means residents might be forced to flee at a moment’s notice.
The fire was pushed burning about six miles southwest of Sisters.
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