Firefighters save homes from blaze in Yakima area
ROYAL CITY – A wildfire that rekindled Sunday briefly threatened a half-dozen homes in central Washington before firefighters were able to contain the blaze for a second time.
The fire about 5 miles south of the farm town of Royal City originally broke out Friday. Firefighters had been monitoring it for hot spots for two days, but the fire reignited Sunday morning, pushed by 25-mph winds, said Chief Brian Evans of Grant County Fire Districts 10 and 11.
The fire burned more than 2 square miles, or about 1,500 acres, of sage, grass and groundcover before firefighters contained it Sunday afternoon. At one time, six homes and six outbuildings were threatened.
Sixty-five firefighters and three aircraft battled the blaze.
Investigators were focusing on whether the fire started from an illegal burn, Evans said.
The state’s largest fires were in south-central Washington’s Horse Heaven Hills, where nearly 90 square miles of grass, sagebrush and farm fields were burning in three separate fires sparked by lightning. A fourth fire was burning on the nearby Hanford Reach National Monument.
Oregon: Seattle cyclist injured in bike ride
A Portland motorist was arrested for investigation of felony hit and run Sunday after striking a bicyclist participating in a Seattle to Portland ride on Highway 30 northwest of Portland, the Oregon State Police said.
Daniel B. Whittlinger, 40, who was driving a Jeep Grand Cherokee, hit the back of a bicycle ridden by Gerald Marvin, 24, of Seattle, said Lt. Gregg Hastings, a state police spokesman.
Two cyclists then collided with either Marvin or his bicycle.
Hastings said Marvin had serious injuries and the other cyclists had minor injuries. All were taken to a Portland hospital.
Woman fires at police, kills herself
A Milwaukie, Ore., woman died from two self-inflicted wounds following an exchange of gunfire with Clackamas County deputies, the Oregon State Medical Examiner ruled Sunday.
Tonya I. Yut, four days shy of her 40th birthday, had a handgun and was holding a beer during Saturday’s confrontation, said Detective Jim Strovink, the sheriff’s office spokesman.
Strovink said Yut placed the gun to her head and approached two deputies stationed in a neighboring yard. Yut ignored commands to drop the gun and fired at least one round that narrowly missed a deputy.
The deputies returned fire, striking the woman. Yut then shot herself twice, dying at the scene.
From Herald news services
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