July 31, 2019 — At approximately 2:45 p.m., a fast-moving wildland fire was reported in the area of 374 Rendezvous Road, off of West Chewuch Road slightly northwest of Winthrop. Units from District 6, the U.S. Forest Service and other agencies are on scene and en route according to conversations heard on emergency response frequencies. […]
Wildfire
Firefighters keep lightning-strike blazes under control
Firefighters knocked down three fires near Mazama ignited by two powerful thunderstorms on Tuesday, July 23, keeping them all under a quarter of an acre. The fires all started on U.S. Forest Service land, although the Davelaar Fire was just west of the Mazama turnoff on Highway 20, said Matt Ellis, fire management officer for […]
Carlton Complex Fire: A look back
Five years ago this week, the Carlton Complex Fire raged all around us and the valley reeled from its devastation. The fire was the catalyst for an unprecedented community response. In the July 17, 2019 newspaper on page (B1), we took a look at the results of those recovery efforts. Inside the B section, we […]
Sagebrush under siege
Invasive, fast-burning cheatgrass is pushing out native plants It may seem, to anyone who has driven long stretches of highway in Nevada, Utah, California and even here in the Methow Valley, that there is plenty — maybe even more than enough — sagebrush. Sagebrush once covered 250 million acres of western North America but today that ecosystem is half the […]
Firefighting safety measures part of federal public-lands bill
Better technology, equipment expected to increase protection Firefighters would wear GPS devices that track their location. Maps of fire boundaries would be updated in real time. And information about the risk of mudslides would be available earlier, enabling timely preventive measures. Those are just some of the safety features that will be required if the […]
What does climate change mean for you?
Help the Methow Valley News explore local impacts of global climate change Last summer my husband and I spent many hours hacking back the sagebrush that surrounds our little cabin outside of Winthrop. The McLeod Fire was 5-6 miles away and we were afraid it would sweep down out of the forest and burn our […]
Suit alleging DNR negligence in Carlton Complex Fire is dismissed
The Washington Department of Natural Resources (DNR), the state’s primary firefighting agency, has no obligation to any individual to control wildfire, but only an obligation to the public in general. With that ruling last week, Okanogan County Superior Court Judge Chris Culp dismissed a lawsuit seeking…
Still a need to assess the health risks for wildland firefighters
Little research so far on long-term effects By Marcy Stamper Wildland firefighters face many risks on the job — working near flames in thick smoke with heavy machinery and sharp tools — but there has been relatively little research into the long-term health impacts of their work. A new law creating a voluntary nationwide registry of cancers in firefighters […]
Fierce weather whips valley fires
Fire crews, who already had their hands full with the Crescent Mountain Fire that’s burned 26 1/2 square miles in the upper Twisp River drainage, were challenged by powerful weather on Saturday (Aug. 11). The day began with an early-morning lightning storm that ignited 17 new …
Ahead of the fire
Judy and Jim Harvey watched gratefully as a crew of Nomex-clad firefighters assembled a large plastic water tank next to their hilltop home on Elbow Canyon Road near Twisp last Saturday morning (Aug. 11). The portable tank holds 1,000 gallons of water to feed a …
