Wildfires gone with the wind
DAVENPORT, Wash. – A day after thunderstorms pushed fire-fueling winds across the region, Tuesday brought a cooler, cloudy respite that allowed firefighters to catch up.
Two dozen residents remained evacuated from their homes near the Mill Canyon fire in the Davenport area, but firefighters across the region either put out or contained 10 smaller fires that burned from a tenth of an acre up to 100 acres.
Fire crews again surrounded the 1,000-acre Mill Canyon fire on Tuesday after winds the night before gusted to 54 mph and breathed new life into the blaze. The wind stoked flames that lit up the night sky eight miles northeast of Davenport.
About 45 minutes after it was contained to about 700 acres, the storm hit around 6 p.m. and pushed the fire up the steep canyon. It jumped fire lines and grew into another 300 acres of scrub and wheat, said Bob Martin, assistant chief of Lincoln County Fire Department’s District 5.
“We heard it was in Harrington so we knew it was going to hit us head-on,” Martin said of the wind. “We could see that storm coming.”
Fire crews had crawled down inside the steep canyon Monday afternoon to attack hot spots. But fire bosses got them out before the wind came, he said.
“We just hunkered down and monitored what we could see,” he said. “It blew embers and everything up north. The fire took off and we had to come down here and evacuate this whole canyon.”
Fire crews closed all roads leading to the Mill Canyon fire and would not let the 24 evacuees return even though the fire did not claim any structures. The fire stopped short of several cabins and Tolstoy Farm, a cooperative organic farm.
“The fire is really insane,” Tolstoy evacuee Shelly Truman Murney said in an e-mail. “I went back (Tuesday) to get the chickens, and a helicopter did a crash landing next to our house.
“The engine cut out and the pilot plopped down in the field. He was fine. They are apparently going to try to fix it and fly it out,” she said. “Hey, things are crazy here.”
The Red Cross opened an evacuation center at 3 p.m. in Davenport High School to help provide care to the displaced homeowners. Martin said he hopes the residents can return home today.
Following the wind, the thunderstorms brought lightning that sparked several other fires in the area. As a result, the DNR reported that 10 of those blazes have burned at least one-tenth of an acre. On Tuesday, the department sent workers to 23 different locations, mostly in Ferry County, for lighting strikes.
In Airway Heights, fire crews knocked out a fire that burned more than 100 acres of wheat and a barn across the road from Northern Quest Casino on Hayford Road. Spokane County authorities closed several roads and ordered the temporary evacuations of homeowners on Balmer Avenue and Flint Road.
Firefighters also mostly contained a 60-acre brush and timber fire near Spangle Creek.
As of Tuesday afternoon, firefighters had almost completely contained the 95-acre brush fire northwest of Spokane near the intersection of Lincoln and Craig roads. They had not determined a cause.
Firefighters were able Tuesday morning to attack the inferno, which had flames that crept to 100 feet tall along some tree lines. Winds helped quickly spread the fire, said Ron Schuttie, a DNR supervisor. “We could get it again,” Schuttie said of the windstorm Monday, “and that would be a test of the lines we have in place.”
Fire crews posted engines at residences within the fire’s grasp Monday night in an effort to protect structures. Schuttie said the only burned structure, to his knowledge, was some sort of unoccupied trailer.
Lynn Bartholomew, who owns 20 acres in the area, spent much of the night watching as firefighters worked to contain the hillside blaze that came within about 100 yards of his ranch-style home.
Bartholomew lent his personal tender – a tanker that supplies water to firetrucks – to crews. They numbered about 30 firefighters, two tenders and 10 engines. In his 30 years at the 13800 block of West Lincoln Road, Bartholomew said only a 1991 fire rivaled Monday’s.
“I think we had umpteen more equipment on it (now) than we did then,” he said.
Living in rural parts of the region comes at a worthwhile risk, he added. “I’ll take my chances here as to being in the concrete jungle,” he said.
At the Mill Canyon fire, helicopters danced across the charred canyon, hitting hot spots with dangling buckets of water. But the once-raging fire had already been reduced to sparse columns of wispy smoke by Tuesday morning.
Hand crews raked out smoldering ashes and chopped burning stumps on the southern edge of the fire, where on Monday air tankers dumped loads of retardant to keep the fire contained to the canyon.
“Our main concern is to just make sure hot spots don’t catch fire and move back up into the fields,” said 19-year-old Anwar Riggins, a firefighter who is originally from Seattle.
Riggins, whose face was streaked with ash and dirt, watched Monday as the windstorm turned hot spots into flames.
“At first it was just smoke. Then the flames started crowning in the trees. It was cool watching from a distance,” he said. “But it’s really dangerous.”
Kevin Killian, a DNR task force leader, peered down into the charred canyon Tuesday afternoon trying to determine how many firefighters were needed today.
“Hopefully (today) we’ll have a pretty good handle on it,” he said.