Local blazes contained, but heat returns
Wildfires in the Methow Valley sparked by a powerful lightning storm on Tuesday, Aug. 3, have been contained, but in eastern Okanogan County, fires continue to burn, and some have prompted evacuations.
There were 293 lightning strikes in Okanogan County and 177 in Chelan County, according to forecaster Rocco Pelatti with the National Weather Service in Spokane. The storm traced a wide swath across Washington, from the Cascades to northeast Washington and into Idaho, with lightning striking 1,399 times in Washington, according to the Northwest Interagency Coordination Center.
Firefighters with Okanogan County Fire District 6 had just finished the public meeting in Twisp about the Cedar Creek Fire when reports started coming in about new smokes. The first was a call about a lightning strike above Davis Lake, District 6 Chief Cody Acord said.
District 6 and the Washington Department of Natural Resources (DNR) responded to Davis Lake around 7:30 p.m., Acord said. DNR crews worked overnight on the fire, which was contained on Wednesday at 1.3 acres and declared controlled on Thursday (Aug. 5).
The storm ignited three small fires in the Okanogan-Wenatchee National Forest. Two near Mazama, the Goat Wall Fire and the Ballard Fire on Driveway Butte, have been declared out, both at 1/10 acre, according to Okanogan-Wenatchee Public Affairs Specialist Robin DeMario. Smokejumpers are working on the 1/3-acre Crater Fire, near Canyon Creek, west of the Cascade crest, DeMario said.
On Tuesday night, alarms went off at Sun Mountain Lodge, which has been threatened by the Cedar Creek Fire for weeks. District 6 fire crews checked the buildings, found no fire, and reset the alarm. They don’t know what triggered it, Acord said.
The thunderstorm brought some rain, but not a heavy downpour. The weather service recorded 0.29 inches in Winthrop, 0.22 in Malott, and 0.14 in Tonasket in the 24-hour period starting Tuesday afternoon.
The moisture and cooler temperatures helped take the heat out of the fire, but the vegetation dries quickly and becomes highly susceptible to burning, Operations Chief Frankie Romero with Great Basin Incident Management Team 1 said in his briefing the morning after the storm. The storm dropped between 0.10 and 0.25 inch of rain on the fire, with heavier rain in the valleys than on the ridges, he said.
Moisture and cool temperatures over the weekend helped tame the fires, but the forecast is for triple-digit temperatures later this week.
Other fires in Okanogan County that started last week are the Hamilton and Whitmore fires south of Omak Lake, the Muckamuck Fire near Conconully, the Chickadee Creek Fire near Tonasket, and the Whitmore Fire near Nespelem. Some of the blazes are threatening homes and have prompted evacuation orders.
The Whitmore Fire had grown to more than 55,000 acres by Monday (Aug. 9), larger than the Cedar Creek Fire. Most of the fires are still under 1,000 acres.
Some of the blazes were ignited by the storm, but the cause of others is under investigation, even though they started the day of the storm or shortly thereafter.
Firefighters and aircraft assigned to the Cedar Creek and Cub Creek 2 fires are helping fight the some of the blazes.
