Firefighters made progress Sunday battling a large Washington wildfire that has burned thousands of acres of mountain wilderness. The wildfire — the largest of numerous ones burning in the West — started July 8 in Mills Canyon in Okanogan-Wenatchee National Forest, which encompasses more than 4 million acres along the eastern slopes of the Cascade Range.
The fire has burned 34 square miles and is 25% contained, said Daniel O’Connor, a U.S. Forest Service spokesman at the fire command center. The fire did not grow in size before dark Sunday, but O’Connor said firefighters were concerned about forecasts of possible lightning storms without rain overnight that could ignite dry brush.
Residents of 37 homes were ordered to evacuate, and people in 48 others were told to be ready to leave, he said. “It’s been a real good day on the fire so far,” O’Conor said. “Crews made a lot of progress.”
Dry lightning — cloud-to-ground lightning without accompanying rainfall — has a 90% chance of igniting sagebrush and grass in the national forest, O’Connor says. The fire, which is southwest of the central Washington town of Entiat, is being battled by 781 firefighters, and its cause has not been determined, he says. Wildfires have plagued the drought-stricken West for months.
President Obama last week asked the House to fund $615 million for “emergency wildfire suppression activities” for fiscal year 2014. The request was attached to a larger request for $3.7 billion for improved border security and other immigration concerns.