Wenatchee-area wildfires now contained

WENATCHEE – On the wildfire lines, the Easy Street fire was 100 percent contained as of Wednesday evening. The fire has scorched 8 square miles, or 5,209 acres, about 3 miles northwest of Wenatchee since being sparked by fireworks Saturday.

The Palisades fire east of Wenatchee also was 100 percent contained, having burned nearly 5 square miles of range land, wheat fields and sagebrush. The cause of the fire was noted as suspicious and remained under investigation.

To the north in Okanogan County, the Little Chopaka fire has burned more than 6 square miles about 10 miles northwest of Loomis, near the Canadian border. Firefighters were mostly doing mop-up Wednesday on the blaze that burned in scattered timber, sagebrush and range land in steep, rocky terrain.

The fire was 90 percent contained. Its cause was not immediately known.

Idaho

Six large fires burning in Idaho have scorched about 168 square miles, the Boise-based National Interagency Fire Center reported Wednesday, and more firefighters are heading to the state.

At 81 square miles, the lightning-caused Black Pine 2 fire near Malta in Southern Idaho, burning through grass, sagebrush, pinyon and juniper, is the largest fire in the state. It had grown about 11 square miles since Tuesday and was about 40 percent contained.

About 230 firefighters were fighting the blaze Wednesday, with 130 more expected from 13 other states, including as far away as New Jersey, said Terina Mullen, a fire information officer with the Bureau of Land Management.

The Tongue Complex fire, a combination of three fires, has burned about 28 square miles of sage and grassland about 45 miles south of Silver City.

The nearby Boulder Creek fire, caused by lightning, has grown to about 10 square miles. The fire was about 50 percent contained.