Story Published:
Jul 25, 2002 at 5:23 AM PST
Story Updated:
Aug 30, 2006 at 11:45 PM PST
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.