Wildfire west of Coulee City 80 percent contained

Crews had contained about 80 percent of a wildfire burning west of Coulee City on Saturday, a fire official there said. Scott Crawford with the Spokane County Incident Management Team also put the size of the fire at 600 acres, far smaller than the 2,500 acres initially reported by fire officials. The fire, which was burning in sagebrush and grass fields, prompted brief closures of U.S. Highway 2 and State Route 17 and voluntary evacuations of four homes. By Saturday, the roadways were reopened and the evacuation order was lifted, with no structures harmed. The cause of the fire is still under investigation. Crawford said 97 people are now working on containing the blaze.