New fire near Lake Chelan threatens cabins
Washington
Authorities delivered evacuation notices Thursday to occupants of eight cabins on the east shore of Lake Chelan as a wildfire grew in size.
The Flick Creek fire broke out Wednesday, and winds had spread it over about 2,000 acres, or more than three square miles, by midday Thursday. The fire was burning in steep terrain about three miles south of Stehekin in north-central Washington.
Evacuations were ordered for four cabins near Flick Creek and four cabins farther down the lake shoreline, Chelan County Sheriff Mike Harum said.
Tim Manns, a spokesman for the National Park Service, said the fire was believed to have been caused by human activity.
About 40 miles northwest of Entiat, the Tinpan fire had burned about five square miles of subalpine trees since it was started July 7 by lightning. The fire was burning in the headwaters of the Entiat River within the Glacier Peak Wilderness, and firefighters were trying to keep it from spreading beyond the wilderness boundary.
About 330 firefighters continued to battle the Tripod fire six miles northeast of Winthrop. It was sparked by lightning Monday in dead lodgepole pine trees that had been killed by beetles.
Montana
Some of the people who were evacuated when the Woodchuck fire blew up on Tuesday evening will have a chance to return to their homes Friday, escorted by Missoula County sheriff’s officers.
The human-caused Woodchuck fire had burned 950 acres east of Florence and was 40 percent contained, fire information officers said.
The fire burned a trailer house and a cabin within hours of its start, Sheriff Mike McMeekin said. The cabin hadn’t been occupied.
The fire started Tuesday afternoon and burned the trailer in its first few hours. Residents of 12 homes in the Upper Woodchuck area were asked to evacuate and remain out of their homes, Pettis said.
On the Crow Indian Reservation, the Owl fire was burning nine to 10 miles southeast of Lodge Grass. The fire, started Wednesday, was estimated at 5,270 acres Thursday morning, said Steve Collins, fire management officer with the Bureau of Indian Affairs’ Forestry division at Crow Agency.
In the Bitterroot Valley, the Gash Creek fire, six miles southwest of Victor, had burned 640 acres and was estimated at 25 percent contained Thursday.
Oregon
About 500 people were told to evacuate their homes Thursday in Central Oregon as a forest fire threatened neighborhoods just west of the town of Sisters.
Residents of the Crossroads and Edgington neighborhoods were asked to leave, and a pre-evacuation advisory was given to 1,000 residents in the Tollgate neighborhood.
Elsewhere, the Happy Valley fire, in the sparsely populated southeast corner of the state, had burned nearly 69,000 acres, or about 106 square miles. Firefighters said the blaze was fully contained.
Firefighters said the Foster Gulch Complex near the Idaho border was burning more than 25,000 acres. Oregon Highway 86 near the town of Halfway was closed.