Stevens County fire crews, homeowners battle to save homes

ADDY, Wash. – Several blazes in Stevens County stretched fire forces thin early Saturday as they battled massive flames.

“We dealt with a fire that was probably 4,000 acres, and we fought it with 11 volunteers, period,” Chief Rick Anderson of southeastern Stevens County’s Fire District 2 said Saturday evening. “I just got home after 30 hours.”

With fire crews overwhelmed, some homeowners battled the flames themselves.

“It’s a mess,” said Paul Kreis, who battled a different blaze in central Stevens County. “It came quickly. We didn’t get no warning.”

Kreis, his brother Charles and his nephew Christopher worked early into Saturday morning to protect their Addy home on Townsend-Sackman Road.

The Kreises’ defense of their land has become a necessary step in a state slammed by fires. The fires that have been named the Colville Complex have burned roughly 6,000 acres. One man died during an evacuation near Fruitland, Washington, an unincorporated town on the east side of Lake Roosevelt.

State resources are overburdened and being sent to other, harder-hit areas, said James Caruso, director of Stevens County emergency management.

“We’re appealing for more resources, for more help,” Caruso said. “Unfortunately, we aren’t the only ones that need help.”

The Kreis family has lived in the home for more than 60 years, Charles said. Early Saturday morning, they cleared brush by the road and sprayed the smoldering hillside down with a water truck borrowed from Hanson Logging.

“I’ve seen a lot of fires, and this one here is pretty ugly,” said Kyle Mccanna, a friend of the Kreis family. “This sucker here is one ugly sucker.”

Although the Kreis house survived the night, on Saturday afternoon the family still warily watched the hillside above their house. Their three children ate Popsicles, which were quickly melting because of a power outage. Debby Kreis, Paul’s wife, was simply amazed their home was still standing.

“As long as everybody’s safe, that’s all I care about,” she said.

Stevens County had been declared a disaster area by Stevens County commissioners on Friday to allow the mobilization of other in-state fire resources. However, Caruso said there was nothing available as of Saturday evening.

“We have tired people fighting it on the ground,” he said, referring to some volunteer and professional firefighters who have worked nearly two days straight. “This is like a landslide, it has hit all at once.”

The fire near Fruitland in southwestern Stevens County was sparked by lightning Thursday on the Spokane Indian Reservation, Anderson said. It was about 6 acres and had a bulldozer line around it Friday morning. Tribal firefighters finished up and left the scene.

But the fire, called the Canyon Creek fire, blew up in high winds Friday.

“It was running really, really hard. We’re talking hundreds of acres an hour,” Anderson said. “There’s nothing you can do but watch it go and try and get people out of the way.”

The district focused on evacuations and structure protection.

The man who died had returned to his property to move a bulldozer to a safer location.

“He collapsed after he got off the equipment,” said Don Dashiell, a Stevens County commissioner who is also a volunteer firefighter for Fire District 2.

The man’s family called 911 for help, but the only way to access the home, Carpenter Road, was blocked by fire.

“The fire swept over the road. We couldn’t access there,” Anderson said. “It was one way in and one way out.”

He said he’s proud of the support firefighters have had from residents, but the fire is tough on the community and the department.

“His mom baby-sat me. I farmed their place. I bought their cattle,” Anderson said of the man who died in the evacuation. “These aren’t statistics. It’s pretty personal.”

Five residences burned in the Canyon Creek fire, and Anderson said about 50 more still were threatened Saturday night.

Anderson, whose father helped start the fire district in 1958, said the community has never experienced a fire this significant.

“We called for mutual aid; I said, anybody in the county, please come and help me. There was nobody to help.”

He requested that state officials to mobilize state resources.

“They said, ‘Yup, you got it. Sorry, there is nobody to send.’ ”

But he stressed he has no complaints, given the intense fires that were threatening many communities at the same time throughout the state. And state resources trickled in Saturday until about 40 firefighters were working the fire by the end of the day. Planes and a helicopter also assisted Saturday.

Stevens County Fire District 5 Chief Les Schneiter said at about 2 a.m. Saturday that eight homes had burned in what is being called the Marble Valley fire, which is within the Colville Complex. Multiple fire districts responded to the Addy-area fire, he said. However, Department of Natural Resources crews were scarce because of fire activity across the Inland Northwest.

Officials believe the Marble Valley fire started Thursday night after a lightning strike.

Early morning Saturday, Schneiter and his crews were monitoring the fire from Scott Lamica’s home on Marble Valley-Basin Road. Schneiter said his crews were mostly doing structure protection. Because of high winds, no air support was available. The lack of air support and ground resources meant actively fighting the fire was nearly impossible, he said. Saturday afternoon there was still no air support, although Lamica’s home remained untouched.

Schneiter said the wind was continuing to push the fire north.

Although Caruso didn’t know the exact number of homes or acres burned within the county, he said it was significant.

“We know it’s a large amount,” he said. “We’re going to find a lot of homes gone.”

Larry Brashler, an eight-year Colville Fire Department veteran, was blown away by the magnitude of the burn.

“It’s the worst thing I’ve ever seen,” he said. “It’s not over yet.

Residents were bringing food, drinks and clothing to firefighters and displaced residents. Wendy Granville, of Colville, brought a load of crackers, Gatorade drinks and clothing to a staging area for Stevens County Fire District 7 firefighters.

“I think the fire fight is going very well, for the resources we have,” said Joe Paccerelli, the chief of District 7.

The Red Cross has established shelters at Gess Elementary and Jenkins High School in Chewelah.

Widespread power outages in Stevens County contributed to the confusion. An Avista Utilities spokesperson said about 11,000 Avista customers went without electricity in the Colville area as a result of high winds and lightning and a problem with a Bonneville Power Administration line that feeds into the Avista grid. The outage briefly affected 911 calls, which were diverted to Spokane County’s 911 system. Most power was restored by late Saturday afternoon.