Fire near Dryden threatens about 100 homes

DRYDEN, Wash. – The Chelan County Sheriff’s Office ordered a new round of evacuations Saturday evening after a wildfire in this central Washington town jumped some fire lines and burned across a road.

It was not immediately clear how many people living in the Eagle Creek drainage were ordered to evacuate and how many were told to be ready to leave at a moment’s notice.

There are about 100 homes in the area threatened by the Fischer fire near this town about 20 miles northwest of Wenatchee, fire information officer Art Tasker said.

The blaze had grown beyond 2,100 acres and was most likely no longer 30 percent contained, Tasker said.

“It’ll be sometime tomorrow before we have an acreage figure,” Tasker said Saturday night.

The fire was moving to the northeast away from homes late Saturday, but Tasker said crews were concerned that thunderstorms in the forecast could blow the fire back toward the homes.

A day earlier about 30 homes near the Fischer fire remained evacuated, with residents of another 40-50 homes put on notice they might have to leave.

More than 850 firefighters were assigned to the Fischer fire, which was burning on private, state and national forest land. It was believed to be human-caused.

Near Naches, northwest of Yakima, the Mud Lake fire was fully contained at 4,000 acres Saturday evening, fire information officer Dale Warriner said.

Crews planned to spend one more day mopping up the fire. “We’re on track to get out of here on Monday,” Warriner said.

Weather predictions for the weekend included high temperatures and low humidity, with the possible addition of dry thunderstorms and lightning.

“It all adds up to high potential for new starts from the lightning and erratic fire behavior from existing fires,” said Carol Tocco of the Northwest Interagency Coordination Center in Portland.

Near Lake Chelan in north-central Washington, 550 firefighters continued to monitor a complex of three fires. The Pot Peak-Sisi Ridge complex remained at 46,970 acres and was 85 percent contained.

Lightning caused all three fires in the complex — the Pot Peak fire on June 26 and the Deep Harbor and Sisi Ridge fires on July 19. The Deep Harbor fire burned a dock and picnic shelter at a campground.

In far north-central Washington, about 140 firefighters were fighting the lightning-cased Mebee fire about a half-mile north of the North Cascades Highway. The fire was estimated at 234 acres. The highway remained open.

About 70 firefighters were assigned to the Rattlesnake Peak fire about 40 miles west of Yakima. The lightning-caused fire has burned about 590 acres in an area that had not burned for 60 years.