Forest fire burning south of Liberty Lake

A fire is burning a heavily forested ridge south of Liberty Lake near the end of Henry Road. A helicopter made repeated water dumps on the fire throughout the afternoon Tuesday, aided by a small plane dumping fire retardant. As of 6:30 p.m. the blaze had grown to 27 acres but was surrounded by a fire line dug by a bulldozer and hand tools, said Washington State Patrol spokesman Trooper Jeff Sevigney. The fire was unchanged at 8:30 p.m. “The line is holding,” said Sevigney. “Things are looking good.” The terrain in the area is steep and rugged. “The fire is extremely hard to access,” said Washington State Patrol spokesman Trooper Jeff Sevigney. “There’s no road in there. Crews are having to hike in 40 minutes just to get there.” Fire crews from Spokane County Fire District 8, the Department of Natural Resources and the Spokane Valley Fire Department were on scene Tuesday. The cause of the fire is unknown, but a nearby resident told Sevigney that he saw lightning hit the ridge during Monday’s thunderstorm. No homes are threatened and no evacuations have been ordered, Sevigney said. “We should have crews here throughout the night.”