Wind Continues To Whip Forest Fire But As Winds Lessen A Little, Threat To Cumberland Reduced

Winds eased a bit and the threat of flames to this timber-country town diminished Wednesday as hundreds of firefighters worked to corral the Massey Gate forest fire.

The fire Wednesday afternoon was estimated at 250 to 300 acres, with containment trails built around about 65 percent of its perimeter, officials of the state Department of Natural Resources said.

“The wind’s still the enemy,” fire information officer Susan Emley said. “We can’t get in front of it. That would put the crews in danger.”

But, she added, “the winds are actually overall a bit calmer than yesterday, and the humidity is a bit higher.”

Wind gusts Wednesday night were forecast to be 25 mph to 30 mph, she said.

Flames on Tuesday had nipped at the edges of Cumberland, about 30 miles southeast of Seattle, but no structures were damaged.

“Yesterday was super-scary,” Vicki Williams, manager of the Cumberland Grocery store, said Wednesday. “Ash was falling; eyes were red. You could feel the heat.”

On Wednesday, she said, the smoke drifting through town didn’t seem as bad.

Still, “the whole town is packed up and ready to go, if they tell us to go,” she said. “The winds are so unpredictable that we know things could change real fast.”

The fire, first reported Monday afternoon, was being fought by about 350 workers Wednesday.

Officials still were nervous because of the erratic nature of strong winds that have blown through the area for the last few days. The active portion of the fire was half a mile or more east of Cumberland, however, and the threat to the town had eased, DNR spokesman John Bergvall said.

There had been no serious injuries, and no one has been ordered to evacuate, officials said.

The blaze began on land owned by Plum Creek Timber Co. The area is a forest plantation containing logging waste.

A burn permit was issued for the area Dec. 19, but the cause of the fire was not immediately determined.

The area is subject to high winds every year about this time as nature tries to equalize the atmospheric pressure on the east and west sides of the Cascade Range.

When high pressure sits over Eastern Washington at the same time a low-pressure system moves in to the west side, the result is a funnel of air shooting over the Cascades, said Cliff Mass, a University of Washington professor of atmospheric sciences.