Yep, it's fire season . . .

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Kathie in Thorp

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Fire started this afternoon west of Wenatchee, WA; then moved east to Wenatchee. They are evacuating most of west Wenatchee area; not even setting up shelters in Wenatchee -- sending folks across the river to E. Wenatchee. 1,700 acres in a few hours.
 
I'm 100% serious, it seems like Wenatchee and Yakima are on fire every year. But then again so is Sisters and the Redmond area of Oregon. It's going to be a very bad year for fires all over the NW this year.
 
News this morning said they lost about a dozen homes already. And the wind is suppose to kick up. I think that one stops when it gets to the river.
 
The mountain behind our place had a grass fire on it the other day. It's got to be over 20 miles away, but we could see the fire line at night and again in the morning irrigating. It was pretty wild.
 
in 2009 we had a fire about 5 miles away on the backside of a mountain... the sky was orange all night... I went up there on the bike and got some cool pictures.. A lot of forest went up in smoke around here that year.. probably about 200,000 acres
 
Dave":3hhr4vgc said:
News this morning said they lost about a dozen homes already. And the wind is suppose to kick up. I think that one stops when it gets to the river.

Last count I heard, Dave, mid-day: 24-28 homes. Plus a couple commercial buildings when hot cinders blew across major streets towards the river. I hope it doesn't get across the river -- or a new fire start over there. That's where my daughter is.
 
Are you folks getting lightning on top of it? It looked like the weatherman here was calling for a lot of it in your area.. it seems to have passed us by for now
 
Nesikep":k59htrca said:
Are you folks getting lightning on top of it? It looked like the weatherman here was calling for a lot of it in your area.. it seems to have passed us by for now
We had some this morning, Nesi. Only Mother Nature knows what the night really holds in store for us.
 
I heard that they lost a apple warehouse and packing shed. The evacuated the Wal-Mart. The river is wide enough there to act as a good natural break but you still never know.
The Doppler radar showed a ton of lightning strikes west of Goldendale. Hard telling what could pop up out there. Lots of rugged timbered country out there that is dry dry.
 
We got a good north wind happening here today... it was nice this morning but it's getting really smokey now... must be some good fires north of us!

Looking at http://bcwildfire.ca/hprScripts/Wildfir ... res=0&FC=2 in the Peace River area, boy have there been some big fires up there... estimating 200,000 acres burnt

It's scarey dry here... Kamloops area got a HECK of a dump of rain last weekend... apparently it just BUCKETED water for hours.. we didn't get ANY of that here.. and with temps in the 100's most days for the last month, we're looking like good candidates for some more big burns
 
No fires close to you, Nesi? I hope! Smoke sucks, though. There's a site for INCIWEB on the internet -- it will show fire info for all USA states, but is not current minute by minute/fire by fire. Dave, fire up on the Colville res now, and there was one the other day on WA side of the river from Biggs Junction (not far from Goldendale area you were talking about). A bunch of 20-200 acre fires on the east side. Have not heard more about the Biggs Junction area fire, so assume that got that one taken care of. The Sleepy Hollow fire in Wenatchee area took out 30 homes and either 3 or 4 commercial businesses as hot embers flew over a mile towards the river (but didn't cross the river). New fire today on I-90 up by Lake Kachelos -- vehicle fire that blew up into the trees. My concern, with the early start to fire season: Many of the smaller populated counties rely on reciprocal support from neighboring counties -- lots of those counties will also have the roughest country with scattered homes/ranches, crops and livestock. I worry that every red zone county is going to have enough troubles of their own that reciprocal support might be lean this year.
 
At the moment there's nothing threatening us at all, but that's not to say one can't start up anytime.. We were going to combine some Sainfoin for seed, but it just didn't seem like a good idea, the fire hazard is just too great, and with the winds we had today we'd have absolutely no chance of putting it out.. that area borders on sagebrush land, so it would take off.. well.. like wildfire
 
I got to see that fire by Goldendale. A couple thousand acres burned. It took out one home. Jumped both highway 14 and 97 in a couple of places.
The news said there were 500 fire calls on the 4th in King County (Seattle) and they said there were 32 separate brush fires in Pierce County (Tacoma). People were playing Russian roulette with the fireworks on the 4th. I got home about 10 on the evening of the 4th. There were fireworks going off everywhere. As I pulled into town the fire trucks were headed north out of town. Half an hour later I heard sirens west of town.
 
I couldn't believe all the fireworks folks were letting off out here, we are so dry right now, everything is brown and just right for a ill placed match. I thinking the woods will be closed fairly soon.
 
We've gotten a break from the heat here today, only in the high 80's I figure, but it's VERY smokey.. there's smoke ceiling around 3000 feet, and at that level you only have a couple miles visibility at best... a little lower down perhaps 4 miles or so
 
Our local flight guys have been called out and one contractor is getting his inspection done and will be heading out with his equipment shortly.

Just glad that bad storm on the 4th did not start anything. With the wind we would have been chasing our tails.
 

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