Eastern Washington Wildfires Grow

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By By KOMO Staff & News Services

Summary

A new fire was reported on the Spokane Indian reservation; other fires continue to spread.

Story Published: Jul 6, 2003 at 5:41 AM PDT

Story Updated: Aug 31, 2006 at 1:06 AM PDT

Eastern Washington Wildfires Grow
SPOKANE - A fire on the Colville Indian Reservation, called the Rattlesnake Canyon fire, swelled to 3,000 acres overnight, increasing its coverage area in northcentral Washington by nearly 50%, fire officials said Sunday.

A smaller blaze, the Paddle fire, had consumed 600 acres on the Spokane Indian Reservation to the east, and up north in the Pasayten Wilderness, three fires covered a total of about 1,680 acres.

The Rattlecreek Canyon fire, on the north side of the Columbia River, just across from the little town of Lincoln and west of the Columbia's confluence with the Spokane River, was in a remote area and not threatening homes, said Marc Hollen with the Northwest Interagency Fire Coordination Center in Portland, Ore.

But he said it's going to take more than the 100 firefighters on-site to take care of this one. The flames were devouring the area's tinder-dry pine trees and sagebrush, Hollen said: "The grasses give it speed and the pines give it intensity."

A multi-agency fire-management team was taking over that blaze Sunday afternoon, working with anthropologists to ensure protection for important tribal cultural sites in the area.

The fire, which began late Friday near the river, apparently was human-caused. "There was no lightning or anything of that nature," Hollen said.

No containment date had been set, he said.

On the Spokane Indian Reservation, meanwhile - in the same area but east of the Spokane River - the new Paddle fire had scorched 700 acres by midday Sunday. That blaze, which started Saturday, was not burning as strongly as the one on the nearby Colville Reservation, in part due to wind and available fuels.

The fire, about 35 miles northwest of Spokane, apparently began with fireworks shot off a boat in Lake Roosevelt, said Bureau of Indian Affairs spokeswoman Ann Dahl in Wellpinit. The lake is a long, deep stretch of the Columbia behind the Grand Coulee Dam.

Some area roads were closed Sunday and people have been asked to leave the Pierre Campground, near where the fire began, Dahl said.

A multi-agency management crew was taking over that fight Sunday evening. The Paddle fire was about 25% contained Saturday but there was no updated figure available Sunday, and no word on the amount of personnel on hand.

"The two fires can see each other's columns," Hollen said, and crews on the Spokane Reservation fire thought their blaze looked "pretty puny" compared to the larger conflagration to the west.

Meanwhile, farther north in the Methow Valley near Winthrop, the Farewell Creek fire expanded about 100 acres overnight to 1,360 acres, said Nick Michel with the state Department of Natural Resources.

It was the largest of three fires in that area, and containment was zero, Michel said. More headway was being made on the two smaller fires, he said, with the 120-acre Fawn Peak blaze about 85% contained and the 200-acre Sweetgrass Fire at about 90%. Containment for the three-fire complex was about 5%.

Fresh crews hit the Farewell Creek fire Sunday, he said.

"We have about 800 people on all three fires, and a whole bunch of equipment," he said.

Sunday marked the start of a ground assault on the Farewell Creek fire, so far tackled only by air. Fire managers had worked out a new strategy and about 200 incoming firefighters were being directed to the blaze, along with bulldozers and other ground equipment.

"This is the first day of a real ground assault on the Farewell Creek Fire," Michel said.

The blaze is in rough, steep terrain and "it took time to find a safe place to put firefighters on the ground," Hollen said.