Officials: Central Wash. wildfires may merge into 'monster blaze'
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CLE ELUM, Wash. - Massive wildfires raging in Central Washington are threatening to merge together to form a monster blaze that would be bigger than the city of Seattle, officials say.
The wildfires so far have tripled in size, thanks to a combination of warm temperatures, winds, very low humidity and low moisture in the vegetation. More than 1,100 homes are threatened by two of the fires, dubbed the Table Mountain Fire and Wenatchee River Complex.
Adding to the woes, the weather forecast for Friday and into the weekend is ripe for more big problems, and more potential evacuations.
A fire weather watch has been issued for possible dry lightning and thunderstorms from late Friday night through Saturday night for the south central Cascade Mountains and valleys as well as the area south of Lake Chelan.
"These thunderstorms are expected to be dry and bring the potential for new fire starts," the National Weather Service said in a statement. "Lightning strikes will also be a concern for firefighter safety."
The Table Mountain blaze is being fought by more than 750 firefighters and was 5 percent contained by Thursday night, fire managers said.
It has not burned any homes, but 161 homes north of Ellensburg and in the Liberty area are under a Level 3 evacuation, meaning residents are urged to leave, Kittitas County Sheriff Gene Dana said Thursday. So far, about 1,250 people have been evacuated.
An additional 640 homes also are potentially at risk from the Table Mountain Fire.
The Table Mountain Complex is one of several wildfires burning on the eastern slopes of the Cascade Range.
The largest, the Wenatchee Complex, has grown to about 65 square miles. It was 24 percent contained and was being fought by more than 2,000 firefighters. It threatens about 350 homes, and 600 people have been evacuated so far as a precaution.
The fires are blanketing Eastern Washington with smoke, and dry conditions have led the state to issue restrictions on logging and other industrial activities in the forests.
The Table Mountain and Wenatchee River complexes are moving closer together, fire officials have said. If they merge they could form into one giant blaze of more than 100 square miles.
Thousands of firefighters are battling dozens of wildfires that were sparked by lightning earlier this month up and down the east slopes of the Cascades.
Smoke from the fires is pouring across Eastern Washington, obscuring the air 200 miles away in Spokane. State officials have warned of hazardous air quality in Ellensburg and Wenatchee from the thick smoke. They are advising residents to stay indoors, limit physical activity and keep doors and windows closed.
The smoke has already prompted some schools to relocate weekend sporting events. Central Washington University is moving its Saturday football game against Azusa Pacific from Ellensburg to the Seattle suburb of Bothell.
"Unfortunately, areas around Wenatchee remain in the worst shape," said Sean Hopkins, of the state Department of Ecology, in Yakima. "At the same time, other areas are experiencing unhealthy air anywhere smoke lingers from the hundreds of wildfires that are burning."
Air-quality monitors in Chelan County are reading in the hazardous and unhealthy ranges, the agency said. Conditions are getting worse in the Quincy area, and conditions could worsen around Spokane, Pullman and Clarkston.
The Washington state Department of Natural Resources on Thursday announced a shutdown of all logging and industrial operations in the woods to avoid accidental starting of fires. The shutdown covers portions of Douglas, Chelan, Kittitas, Yakima and Klickitat counties.
Logging is restricted to between 8 p.m. and 1 p.m. in portions of Lincoln, Spokane, Stevens, Ferry and Okanogan counties, the state said.
The wildfires so far have tripled in size, thanks to a combination of warm temperatures, winds, very low humidity and low moisture in the vegetation. More than 1,100 homes are threatened by two of the fires, dubbed the Table Mountain Fire and Wenatchee River Complex.
Adding to the woes, the weather forecast for Friday and into the weekend is ripe for more big problems, and more potential evacuations.
A fire weather watch has been issued for possible dry lightning and thunderstorms from late Friday night through Saturday night for the south central Cascade Mountains and valleys as well as the area south of Lake Chelan.
"These thunderstorms are expected to be dry and bring the potential for new fire starts," the National Weather Service said in a statement. "Lightning strikes will also be a concern for firefighter safety."
The Table Mountain blaze is being fought by more than 750 firefighters and was 5 percent contained by Thursday night, fire managers said.
It has not burned any homes, but 161 homes north of Ellensburg and in the Liberty area are under a Level 3 evacuation, meaning residents are urged to leave, Kittitas County Sheriff Gene Dana said Thursday. So far, about 1,250 people have been evacuated.
An additional 640 homes also are potentially at risk from the Table Mountain Fire.
The Table Mountain Complex is one of several wildfires burning on the eastern slopes of the Cascade Range.
The largest, the Wenatchee Complex, has grown to about 65 square miles. It was 24 percent contained and was being fought by more than 2,000 firefighters. It threatens about 350 homes, and 600 people have been evacuated so far as a precaution.
The fires are blanketing Eastern Washington with smoke, and dry conditions have led the state to issue restrictions on logging and other industrial activities in the forests.
The Table Mountain and Wenatchee River complexes are moving closer together, fire officials have said. If they merge they could form into one giant blaze of more than 100 square miles.
Thousands of firefighters are battling dozens of wildfires that were sparked by lightning earlier this month up and down the east slopes of the Cascades.
Smoke from the fires is pouring across Eastern Washington, obscuring the air 200 miles away in Spokane. State officials have warned of hazardous air quality in Ellensburg and Wenatchee from the thick smoke. They are advising residents to stay indoors, limit physical activity and keep doors and windows closed.
The smoke has already prompted some schools to relocate weekend sporting events. Central Washington University is moving its Saturday football game against Azusa Pacific from Ellensburg to the Seattle suburb of Bothell.
"Unfortunately, areas around Wenatchee remain in the worst shape," said Sean Hopkins, of the state Department of Ecology, in Yakima. "At the same time, other areas are experiencing unhealthy air anywhere smoke lingers from the hundreds of wildfires that are burning."
Air-quality monitors in Chelan County are reading in the hazardous and unhealthy ranges, the agency said. Conditions are getting worse in the Quincy area, and conditions could worsen around Spokane, Pullman and Clarkston.
The Washington state Department of Natural Resources on Thursday announced a shutdown of all logging and industrial operations in the woods to avoid accidental starting of fires. The shutdown covers portions of Douglas, Chelan, Kittitas, Yakima and Klickitat counties.
Logging is restricted to between 8 p.m. and 1 p.m. in portions of Lincoln, Spokane, Stevens, Ferry and Okanogan counties, the state said.
i lived on 410 for yrs  with the deep undergrowth its no wonder theses fire are hard to stop the undergrowth is out of controll here , we need more controlled burns  , there has to be a better way then just letting every thing lay on the forest  ground waiting for a spark, and thats all it takes, so now we watch as many homes have the potental of burning, or worse yet, lives lost ,, thank you to our fire fighter, god bless,, i dont see rain or snow  till october i sure hope im wrong,, and to the people in direct line of the fire, when they say get out , do just that,, a home isent worth dying for , trully my heart gos out to you all
Just another sign of the times.
This is so sad!Â
I'm semi new to the area....do they not conduct controlled burns to counteract this very problem?
 @Ihateupeople It's not really a regular process in most of the area that's burning right now.Â
 @Aaron L. Morgenstern Sad, I hope no one loses a home to this.....
I hope the environmentalists are happy now! Great forest management strategy too, let's not go in and clean up all of the blowdown and attempt to reduce fire / fuel risk, beacuse that makes so much sense!! And if someone tries to make the forest healtier, let's sue them so that they can't do anything at all. Well you wanted it (greeners) and now you have it, enjoy the show! It would only make sense to make these folks man the fire lines right? Your mess, you created it, now help clean it up.....
@BlueRay Oh and one more thing, the policy that I just described below, regarding allowing nature caused fires to burn? Yeah the policy was changed under the administration of George H.W. Bush, a conservative republican.
@BlueRay you idiot, the fire prevention policy is the same as it has been for decades now. Do you recall the huge forest fire that occurred in Yellowstone National Park in the 80s? Before that fire, the policy by the US Forest Service, BLM and DNR was to allow the fires to burn naturally, as long as they were not caused by man. That policy changed in 1988 because of the overwhelming size of the fire. This had NOTHING to do with politics; and if I recall, the current policy that you are blaming on the environmentalists, has been in effect for the same number of conservative republican administrations, as democratic ones: 2.
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So next time you feel like getting on your soapbox, running your mouth, and sounding like a complete tool, at least have some damn facts to back up your arguement. Environmentalists have zero issue with natural burns.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yellowstone_fires_of_1988
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Environmentalists are fine with clearing blowdown and overgrowth of brush. It's the clearcutting and removal of old growth trees we object to. So don't misinform people, please.
One of my major concerns vis a vis our deliberate restriction of action with wildfire so-called management is the fact of erosion that we are supposedly also trying to arrest by letting all groundclutter and windfall sit passively and add to our soil retention. Fire burnt zones shed water at much higher rate. Path of least resistance in any action is typical progress, and water still knows this better than us, apparently. Now add the fact that on fires we do suppress, we use large dumps of high impact water. Higher impact due to overall droplet size combined with speed is damaging to the soil retention of the surface material we are trying to save in that local for a year or two whether we save the trees or not. Also, while we can sit on our laurels and say that the water is good for the tree, we simply do not know that because we are then artificially altering the life cycles of plants and trees both through the water and soil that tell the tree when or if dormancy cycle or growth is being stimulated. And we don't look at the trees by specie either, such as age trait relationships with Sequoias or Methuselah Pines. Hand or machine assisted preventative maintenance of our wildlands is as required for the Dept. of the Interior, who holds all major public lands in TRUST for the Dept. of Education; as it is to show our kids how to do this land maintenance thing correctly the first time.
I can't remember ever seeing this kind of devastation by fire here. I feel horrible for those people, I pray for rain for them soon, and safety to all.
I am curious to know If man wasn't here to fight these fires every year, would western Washington become a desert or would it be fertile enough to regrow on its own I seen some one post how insect infected the forests have become, fire dose not pick and choose it eats every thing. If there are any geologists reading I would like to know if it has burned until there was nothing left.
 @Cindertang Well..if man wasn't here several of the fires wouldn't have begun in the first place.
 @Cindertang In Yellowstone they had some areas burn so hot that yes the ground was sterilized. Not even bacteria left. If the fires merged you could end up with those kind of firestorms in the core. But what Yellowstone is teaching is that even those areas do start to restore themselves.
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Obviously the problems are for infrastructure and property. Additionally when the area is burned, it can't hold the topsoil in place. Throw in another wetter than normal winter and you increase flooding, and runoff - the muddy runoff is not good for salmon.
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There is a delicate balance. Outright fire supression is bad. Some trees in the west like the Ponderosa and the Lodge Pole need fire to spread to their seeds. But burn too hot (like the South Dakota wildfires that went through Wind Cave National Park) and they roast the seeds, not only defeating the spread - but exposing the land to either undesired species or soil runoff.
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In the Pacific Northwest the cycle is actually pretty darn simple. Fire burns it down. Alders, which grow fast, and need lots of sun start to grow. Douglas firs start to grow within the shade of Alders as they mature. The Douglas firs, which grow fast, but not as fast at the Alders, start to tower over the Alders, providing shade for Hemlock and Cedar to grow in. However the Alders no longer have the light they need, they start to die off. As they fall they provide nurse logs that accelerate the growth of Hemlock and Cedar species. The Douglas firs have a shorter life span, and they start to grow old, and through wind and insects and other issues fall, providing more nurse logs. Eventually you have a forest of Hemlock and Cedar and towering Douglas firs.
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Well, if you wait 200 to 250 years. THERE in lies the problem.
 @Howard Beale  @Cindertang @ Over her, it is to dry for alder, and Hemlock, the ground is mostly red clay,,  Mainly fir, and Tamarack,, and pine,
 @Cindertang The variables of your question are going to be so far ranging that few could even give a complete answer. While fires create a great birth environment for plant life, it's interaction with poor soil environments such as arid grasslands aren't always as beneficial due to carbon sequestration requirements for the plant trying to eat enough of it to get through to some overall nutrient base material. Weather is also critical, as is overland and water table flow that are far more than erosion.
 @Cindertang Hard to say what would happen if we weren't around, but I know there's a number of pine tree species that cannot reproduce without fires to open up the pinecones and release seeds. You don't hear a lot about controlled burns around here, but in some parts of the country this is a fairly common occurrence to control the amount of debris on the forest floor. The thought is that it's better to have small controlled fires to reduce the impact of the ones that happen naturally. On the other hand, controlled burns do have the potential to go out of control as well, as happened in the Cerro Grande fire in 2000 that burned down a good portion of Los Alamos NM.
@Vexorg @Cindertang part of the objection to controlled burns is folks getting their panties in a knot about air quaility, see farmers in eastern WA....field burning destroys several kinds of diseases that kill/contaminate grains WITHOUT using chemicals.
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You are right we NEED controlled burns....but some of the enviros dont like them.
 @Vexorg  @Cindertang I just read it is the "Jack Pine" tree.
 @Vexorg  @Cindertang When I was at Yosemite about 10 years ago they were having controlled burns. I had never seen one before let alone the many they had going. It's good if it's under control, and it helped that species I can't think of either, release it's seeds from the hard pine cones.
 @Cindertang Fires are natures way of cleaning out old/dead brush and trees. Before man, fires would happen regularly and clear out mostly brush and dead trees. Because we have such strict fire control measures, dozens of years go by without any fires, thus making the amount of fuel available greater and greater. Then when fires do happen, they are much more intense than they otherwise normally would be. The Yellowstone fire of 1988 was a great example.   http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yellowstone_fires_of_1988
 @PuyallupCoug  @Cindertang Alot of the devastation would be easier to control with selective logging before the fires. Road closures and designated wilderness areas hurt the fire fighting.Â
 @Cindertang Mt. St. Helens area restored itself pretty quick, even the fish...
 @Big Don Thats very true and brings another question, would it have been even worse if the shock wave had not put out the fires as they started?
I'm glad the Canadians are sending people, those fire fighters need all the help they can get.
Not enough resources in place to fight the fires - not enough fire fighters, not enough equipment. But there are those that would tell you that union fire fighters are thugs who live off of entitlements from the taxpayers. We're reaping what we sow, but thankfully a foreign country is stepping up to help us out.
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Ya, who on earth would we want to pay a fair wage to someone who's occupational hazards include being roasted alive, eating smoke for a living, needing to lug over 60 pounds of equipment in impossible conditions, and exposure to an unknown list of compounds, chemicals, and fallout that shorten your life span by years, if not decades.
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I hope they get these under control - the "savings" of underfunding wildfire suppression doesn't equate to the lost value of damaged land, destroyed real estate, infrastructure and the loss of tourism dollars. Never mind the long term impact to hunting, fishing, and winter/spring runoff.
 @Howard Beale @ I figure some numb nut would have to drag Unions into it!
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 @Howard Beale @ have you ever fought a fire? Probably not! They deserve every penny they get, If Romney is president. you will have your $5 an hour wish!
 @Stoney Coyote  @Howard Beale Stoney, I think you misread Mr. Beale's post.  I believe he was putting firefighters and their Unions in a positive light.  At least, that's how I read it.
 @Stoney Coyote ??? I was an EMT a very long time ago - one of my besties is a career fire fighter, have a number of EMT/Paramedic friends. I am very much pro-fire, pro-police, pro-EMS, pro-military, pro-teachers and paying them what they are worth, and providing them the benefits they deserve - I'm confused by your reply.
 @Stoney Coyote  @Howard Beale Buddy is a fire fighter, was called to go fight the fire, spent 3 days there and is now fishing at Sekiu. Go figure.
 @USMCLSS  @Howard Beale  close to 1000 fighters now,, smoke is so thick, that it is hard to breath
 @Howard Beale Hear! Hear!
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Vote Quimby.
Certainly need some rain. If it doesn't rain it will just keep getting bigger.
Be safe firefighters and thank you so much for the work you do.