Progress made against area fires

The Freeman High School football team practices amid a haze of smoke from the Yale Road fire on Monday, Aug 22, 2016, in Rockford, Wash. (Tyler Tjomsland/SR)

Firefighters have made significant progress against the wildfires burning near Spokane, but dry weather and steep terrain continue to pose problems.

As of Tuesday afternoon, crews had contained most of the Wellesley fire burning near Beacon Hill in north Spokane.

“The Wellesley fire is pretty much ringed up,” said incident commander Rick Isaacson. “They’re just mopping up hot spots right now. It’s looking good.”

The same couldn’t be said about the Yale Road fire near Valleyford, which still was burning heavy timber on a hillside below wheat fields. Mandatory evacuation orders Tuesday were reduced to Level 1 in the evening/SR. More here (subscription).