Spokane Firefighters Help Clean Up Wildfire

About 30 firefighters from Spokane County on Sunday helped clean up a wildfire that ate up more than 12,000 acres in Central Washington.

The Spokane firefighters were called in by the state Emergency Management Division about 12:25 a.m. Sunday.

Firefighters from Benton, Chelan, King, Pierce and Kitsap counties were also summoned to help fire departments in Yakima County.

The fires started about 1:40 p.m. Saturday about 15 miles southeast of Yakima. They chewed through grass about 18 inches high and sagebrush, over hilly terrain, but didn’t threaten any homes. One person was injured - a firefighter who suffered smoke inhalation.

More than 300 firefighters and 70 pieces of equipment tackled the blazes, which burned west of Konnowac Pass Road and on state Bureau of Land Management terrain south of Elephant Mountain. The fires were brought under control about 6 a.m. Sunday.

“The threat was it was going to be a very large fire,” said Lt. Nathan Raby of the Kennewick Fire Department.

The mobilization was the first since the wildfires near Chelan in 1994. The state Fire Services Mobilization Plan is an agreement between state government and local firefighting agencies to help battle large fires that are beyond a local jurisdiction’s capabilities.

Spokane firefighters arrived at the fire about 10:30 a.m. Sunday. Two strike teams and 10 engines from county districts helped mop up the fire before returning home Sunday evening. , DataTimes