OMAK – Two wildfires in north central Washington continued to burn Tuesday across about 2,500 acres of land near Omak and Winthrop. Another fire north of the Hanford nuclear reservation in south central Washington burned more than 1,000 acres.
The larger blaze was northeast of Omak, and had burned about 2,000 acres of sage brush and grassland on the Colville Indian Reservation.
The fire was reported about 1:30 p.m. Monday near a residential area, but no structures were being threatened late Tuesday afternoon as the wind moved the flames away from the homes, said Dale Warriner, information officer for the interagency group fighting the fire.
About 150 people fought the fire Tuesday, and as many as 500 were expected to be on the scene today. No containment estimate was available Tuesday, Warriner said.
The fire north of Hanford was reported Tuesday afternoon and covered more than 1,000 acres of brush. Blowing smoke prompted the Washington State Patrol to close Highways 24 and 243.
No injuries were reported, and the causes of both fires were under investigation.
Associated Press
Seattle: McDermott laughing over book
U.S. Rep. Jim McDermott is laughing off his inclusion in the book “100 People Who Are Screwing Up America.” McDermott, D-Wash., is No. 38 and jokes that he doesn’t know why he didn’t make it into the Top 10 along with Michael Moore, Ted Kennedy and Jimmy Carter. McDermott calls it a “right-wing book with no purpose other than to make money” for the author, former CBS newsman Bernard Goldberg. Goldberg criticized McDermott for saying in Baghdad that President Bush would mislead the American people. McDermott said he was simply telling the truth, and in fact the president did mislead the public about the Iraq war.
Associated Press
Man rescued from brush on park cliff
Seattle firefighters Tuesday rescued a man who fell about 50 feet down a wooded cliff during an Independence Day fireworks display and became stuck overnight in blackberry bushes.
Fire Department spokeswoman Helen Fitzpatrick said the man fell at Discovery Park while trying to find a good spot to watch the fireworks over Elliott Bay.
A parks department worker heard him calling for help Tuesday morning, she said.
A fire department aid crew took him to a hospital to be checked for a back injury, Fitzpatrick said.
Associated Press
Longview: Man killed at soccer tournament
A 33-year-old man was fatally shot in a park during a soccer game in this southwestern Washington city, and police were seeking a 24-year-old man. Police said the shooting apparently wasn’t directly linked to the game.
Hundreds of people were at Roy Morse Park for a Spanish Soccer League tournament when the shooting occurred Sunday afternoon near one of the soccer fields, Longview police Sgt. Jim Duscha said.
The dead man was identified as Eduardo Farfan Arciga of Kelso.
The man being sought was identified by police as Daniel Gomez Pimentel of Longview.
Associated Press
Wenatchee: Jogger collapses and dies
A man visiting from Olympia for his son’s baseball tournament collapsed and died while jogging, apparently of a heart attack, officials said.
Kittrel Porter, 57, was found lying beside the Apple Capital Recreation Loop Trail Saturday afternoon, and an attempt at cardiopulmonary resuscitation was unsuccessful, police Sgt. Kevin Dresker said.
An autopsy was pending, but Chelan County Coroner Gina Fino said Porter apparently experienced a “sudden cardiac event.”
Associated Press
Alaska: Wreckage found of missing plane
Three men aboard a small plane missing since Friday were found dead Tuesday afternoon, according to Alaska state troopers.
The three were visiting Alaska from North and South Carolina. The Cessna 207 crashed on the north side of West Amatuli Island between Seldovia and the north end of Kodiak Island, troopers said.
A Coast Guard search team spotted the wreckage late Tuesday morning. Pararescuers from an Alaska Air National Guard search and rescue team were able to climb to the crash site and confirmed there were no survivors.
Associated Press
Grizzly that killed two people called normal
A 300-pound grizzly bear that killed an Anchorage couple along a river in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge was a normal 9-year-old male with no signs of health problems, investigators said Tuesday.
An examination at the University of Alaska Fairbanks found that the animal was normal-sized for a male grizzly this time of year on the North Slope, said Cathie Harms, a spokeswoman for the state Department of Fish and Game in Fairbanks.
The bear’s carcass showed no apparent signs of illness, weakness or injury. The bear was more than 6 feet tall, and its footprints matched those found at the campsite, Harms said.
The necropsy did not reveal why the bear attacked Richard Huffman, 61, and Kathy Huffman, 58, whose bodies were found June 25 in a tent near the Hulahula River. Additional tests on the animal were scheduled.
Associated Press
Melting ice could shrink polar bear populations
Melting ice could spell the ruin of polar bear populations over the next century, a report by an international panel of experts warns.
If warming in the Arctic continues to erode sea ice, the carnivores will be driven ashore or onto increasingly smaller floes to hunt for seals, the World Conservation Union said last week.
The 40 members of the polar bear specialist group said the population of the Arctic’s top predator could crash by 30 percent over the next 35 to 50 years.
Some climate models predict summer ice could disappear from the Arctic Ocean by the end of the century.
Associated Press
Oregon: Tribe wants island’s name changed
Squaw Island, a tiny island near the mouth of Sunset Bay, is at the center of a naming dispute.
The Legislature has mandated changes in place names containing the word “squaw” after it was determined that many American Indians consider the term derogatory.
In a proposal to the Oregon Geographic Names Board, the Confederated Tribes of the Coos, Lower Umpqua and Siuslaw suggested changing the name to Qochyax Women and Children’s Island.
Caves on the island served as a refuge for American Indian women and children during times of peril.
Associated Press
Canada: Zoning for two Wal-Marts rejected
The Campbell River City Council has voted unanimously against rezoning an area for a Wal-Mart store in this Vancouver Island town, the second rejection for the U.S. chain in British Columbia in a week.
The decision by the six-member panel followed about half a year of sometimes heated debate and days after a similar vote by the City Council in Vancouver, Canada’s largest West Coast city.
In Vancouver, a Wal-Mart proposal at the site of a former south end dealership was rejected June 28 after four years of intense debate.
Associated Press
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