2 Wildfires Continue To Burn In Eastern Washington

2 Wildfires Continue To Burn In Eastern Washington

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Story Published: Jul 25, 2002 at 6:23 AM PDT

Story Updated: Aug 31, 2006 at 12:45 AM PDT

By KOMO Staff & News Services

MANSON - Hundreds of firefighters battled two major blazes in north-central Washington on Thursday, fires that have claimed more than 30,000 acres of timberland and forced dozens of people out of their homes.

On the north shore of Lake Chelan, crews worked to reinforce firelines on the eastern flank of the 28,650-acre Deer Point fire, anticipating possible increased winds through Friday.

"The eastern edge - we've got it pretty cold now," said Greg Thayer, a Forest Service spokesman. "We're probably pretty prepared."

The eastern edge of the fire is closest to the 75 homes evacuated in the Antilon Lake and Mitchell Creek areas, as well as the Swanson, Cooper and Purtteman gulches - all north of the town of Manson.

Four vacation cabins have burned and two Forest Service campgrounds were damaged.

The Deer Point fire was started by an abandoned campfire July 15. It has burned a swath of timberland and brush more than a dozen miles long between the lake and the Sawtooth Mountains, primarily on the Wenatchee National Forest.

There were 1,200 people working on the fire, which was 35 percent contained. Firefighters had about 24 miles of containment fireline left to clear.

Northeast of Lake Chelan, the Pickens fire had burned 1,800 acres on private and U.S. Bureau of Land Management property, 5 miles north of Tonasket near the Canadian border, said Brett Walker, a spokesman for the state Department of Natural Resources.

Crews hoped to have it contained by late Thursday and declared under control by late Friday, he said. Bulldozers had cleared nine miles of fireline around the blaze, which was burning in grass, brush and timber.

The cause of the fire, which started Wednesday, was under investigation.

The Pickens fire forced the evacuation of 17 homes, and threatened between 60 and 140 structures of various kinds. One structure burned Wednesday, Walker said. Specifics were not immediately available.

There were 100 firefighters on the scene, and an interagency team of fire specialists has taken over management of the blaze.

The Northwest Interagency Coordination Center, which dispatches fire crews around the region, said a string of thunderstorms crossed Washington and Oregon on Wednesday night, sparking an undetermined number of new fires.

"That did cause quite a bit of problems," said center spokeswoman Jocelyn Biro. "We awoke to uncertainty as to how many fires we actually have out there."

About 220,000 acres have burned in Oregon, and almost 11,000 firefighters are working in that state.

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