The fire started July 15 near the Deer Point campground on the north shore of Lake Chelan in the Wenatchee National Forest. By Monday, it had spread about 12 miles southeast along the shore toward the town of Manson.

Evacuations orders or warnings to be ready to evacuate were in effect for about 200 homes Monday. People living in the Upper and Lower Joe Creek, Emerson Acres and Greens Landing areas have been allowed to return to their homes, and a handful of farmers had been given permission to bring in workers to pick sweet cherries.

Crews were making good progress on the southern and eastern edges of the fire and hoping to keep the blaze from advancing to the north and east, into higher elevations with lots of fuel.

"It's country that all burned in 1970. It's waist-deep in lodgepole slash with 10-foot- to 30-foot-tall lodgepole reproduction coming up," said Forest Service spokesman Jim Archambeault.

"There's concern about it getting up into that and possibly crossing into the Okanogan National Forest and Okanogan County."

Depending on the terrain and the circumstances, the width of cleared firelines can range from about 2 feet to 20 feet.

Nearly 1,000 people were assigned to the fire, along with four helicopters, 64 wildland and structural fire engines, 11 water tenders, and eight bulldozers.

The fire more than doubled in size last Friday in high winds, but it has not spread significantly since then, said Greg Thayer, another Forest Service spokesman.

Assessment teams working over the weekend found that four cabins and three outbuildings had been destroyed, along with a boat, a boat dock, two boat trailers, a travel trailer and a pickup truck.

Boats docks, picnic shelters and outhouses were damaged or destroyed at two Forest Service campgrounds, one at Mitchell Creek and one at Antilon Lake, Archambeault said.

For Delores Chamberlain, who moved to Manson from Seattle last year, watching the fire make its Friday night run toward her Upper Joe Creek Road home was "absolutely terrifying."

Friends helped Chamberlain and her husband, Roy, soak their house with water about midnight, as the fire roared by a half-mile away.

"I had never heard such noise, between the wind and the fire," she said. "The wind was horrendous."

Chelan County Undersheriff Doug Tangen said two families have been contacted about the campfire that started the Deer Point wildfire. The campfire was built outside the developed campground and not in an approved fire pit.

"We do have some leads that we're pursuing," said Forest Service investigator Roger Fuson. He refused to provide details.

Because of the high fire danger, which occurs almost annually, campfires on the Wenatchee and Okanogan national forests have been limited to developed campgrounds or in high-country wilderness areas.

Last year, the Rex Creek fire, farther north of Lake Chelan, burned 43,000 acres. In 1994, the Tyee Creek fire and others burned 187,000 acres and 39 houses in the Wenatchee National Forest.