Infrastructure safe from current fires

Idaho

A lightning-caused wildfire on the Oregon-Idaho border spread to 67 square miles by Saturday afternoon, but officials from the Idaho Power Co. said the blaze hadn’t affected a pair of transmission lines that supply electricity from its Hells Canyon dams to Washington, Oregon and Idaho.

A day earlier, the state’s largest utility had warned if the Foster Gulch fire in the Wallawa-Whitman National Forest near the Snake River downed the lines, it could affect power supplies to much of the region, resulting in outages.

U.S. Forest Service fire officials said the fire, which started as two fires around July 23 and has since merged into a single blaze, is being fought by 700 firefighters from the Northwest, as well as Alabama, Tennessee, Puerto Rico – even six firefighters from New York City learning about large-scale fire management.

About a fifth of the fire is contained, officials said.

The National Interagency Fire Center in Boise was reporting six Idaho fires on its Web site, including one new one, the Potato fire, a 400-acre blaze in the Salmon-Challis National Forest. That lightning-caused fire was burning in steep, rugged terrain seven miles north of Stanley and was threatening fisheries habitat, power lines and a historic cabin.

Most of the fires in the state, including the 600-acre Bar Creek fire in the Clearwater National Forest in north central Idaho, the 6,600-acre Dunce fire burning cheatgrass in the Payette National Forest, and the 916-acre Lick Creek fire, also in the Payette National Forest 25 miles north of McCall, were being allowed to burn to help improve wildlife habitat and meet forestry goals.

Washington

Two wildfires were threatening vacation homes near Lake Cushman and Lake Chelan on Saturday, with hundreds of people waiting for possible evacuation orders, fire officials said.

The Flick Creek fire on the east shore of Lake Chelan near the north central Washington community of Stehekin was under a “level 2” evacuation order, said Terry Knupp, spokeswoman for the Northern Rockies Incident Management Team. She said that means people have been told to be prepared to leave at a moment’s notice.

A new estimate of the fire’s perimeter, after an infrared flight, put it at over 2,000 acres or over 3 square miles, Knupp said.

Stehekin sits on the north end of Lake Chelan, accessible by boat, float plane, horse or on foot, which makes firefighting more complicated than usual, Knupp said.

She said the Northern Rockies Incident Management Team had limited firefighting resources available to battle the wildfire, with only about 15 firefighters on the ground and one helicopter in the air Saturday. Knupp said additional people and equipment have been ordered.

The fire was believed have been caused by an illegal campfire.

Meanwhile, the Bear Gulch fire was burning on about 250 acres of steep, rugged terrain between Lake Cushman and the southwest face of Mt. Rose in the Olympic National Forest in northwest Washington.

Hundreds of homes are near but none were immediately threatened, said fire spokesman Sam Goldwater.

The cause of the fire was under investigation, but officials suspected it was human caused.

The Staircase area of Olympic National Park was closed along the Staircase access road and a number of campgrounds, picnic areas and trails were closed inside nearby Olympic National Park and in the Olympic National Forest, Goldwater said.

In north central Washington, the Tripod fire covered an estimated 27 square miles, or about 17,500 acres of forest land, six miles northeast of Winthrop.

About 40 miles northeast of Entiat, the Tinpan fire had burned about five square miles of subalpine trees since it was started July 7 by lightning.

The Spur Peak fire has burned nearly 8 square miles, or about 5,000 acres, about 16 miles northeast of Winthrop. The fire had been contained, but was still burning within its borders, officials said.