Washington Wildfires Burn Nearly 200,000 Acres, Injured Grass Valley Firefighter Stable

As the wildfires across Washington torched nearly 200,000 acres of land, the Federal Emergency Management Agency on Monday authorized use of federal funds to help curb the blaze growing in the state.

The Cougar Creek fire in Chelan County, which began July 28, grew to 29,186 acres Monday, with only 5 percent contained till now. Entiat River Road, Ardenvoir, and Mad River Road are currently under level three evacuations, which means the residents are advised to move immediately away from the area.

Favorable weather conditions Sunday night allowed fire personnel to prevent the blaze from progressing on to the town of Ardenvoir.

GapFire Incident Commander Rick Young said, “On the heels of an intense two days, our firefighters held the fire lines, and we saved structures,” local daily KPQ reported.

Over 1,000 firefighters were still on the scene protecting structures. Entiat River valley was the priority for the crews Monday while they remained active on the South of Tyee Creek, Stormy Creek and Potato Creek.

According to fire department spokesman Nick Mickel, additional spot fires popped up while the firefighters tried to maintain their containment line.

“We have to then mobilize our resources from that fire, free up what we can safely, and not lose sight of protecting structures of the main part of the fire and then chase those spots,” he said.

The Grass Valley fire on the other hand burned a total of 74,835 acres as of Monday, with 40 percent contained. New evacuation notices were in effect for Grand Coulee and Coulee Dam on Monday, Seattle-based Komo News reported.

A total of five structures including a boat and a house have been damaged in the fire, which led to the more air attack crews being deployed to the area Monday.

A firefighter who suffered second and third-degree burns on his legs, back, and neck in the Grass Valley fire Saturday was reportedly in a satisfactory condition. Brett Read, 38, was burned near Grand Coulee Dam and airlifted to Harborview Medical Center in Seattle on Saturday.

“Read became separated from the engine he was working on and suffered burns during the incident. The second firefighter on Read’s engine was not injured,” Department of Natural Resources said in a news release Sunday.

Ben Shearer, information officer with the Southeast Washington Interagency Incident Management Team, said the weather was much better Sunday which helped firefighters shore the blaze from working its way down to other cities.

“Yesterday was a really good day on the fire line. Over the last couple of days crews have managed to do very well,” he said Monday, local daily the Spokesman-Review reported.

He also added the fire crew was expected to contain the fire completely by Tuesday night or Wednesday morning if wind and weather conditions remained stable.

The Crescent Mountain Fire in Okanogan County reached nearly 16,000 acres over the weekend; however, it was less active. Around 600 personnel were on scene and working towards coordinating structure protection strategies.

The other fires burning across the state include Angel Spring fire (5,000 acres), Boffer fire (5,000 acres), Miriam wildfire (2,236 acres), Maple fire (1,200 acres) and Hawk fire (1,500 acres).