07/25/2002

The Associated Press

MANSON, Wash. - Hundreds of firefighters battled two major blazes in north-central Washington on Thursday - fires that have claimed nearly 35,000 acres of timber and brushland and forced dozens of people out of their homes.

On the north shore of Lake Chelan, crews worked to reinforce firelines on the eastern flank of the 33,115-acre Deer Point fire, anticipating possible increased winds through Friday.

AP/Jackie Johnston A layer of smoke from the Deer Point fire hangs over Chelan on Wednesday.

The eastern edge of the fire was closest to the 75 homes evacuated in the Antilon Lake and Mitchell Creek areas, as well as the Swanson, Cooper and Purtteman gulches - all north of the town of Manson.

Resource Links

Fires in the Okanogan and Wenatchee National Forests National Interagency Fire Center Lake Chelan Web cam

No houses or cabins were immediately threatened by the blaze, but an evacuation order remained in effect for about 75 homes in the Antilon Lake and Mitchell Creek areas as well as the Swanson, Cooper and Purtteman gulches, Thayer said.

A fear of fire and concerns about the smoky haze that periodically blankets the valley have kept some tourists away from this popular summer recreation area. But with 1,200 people assigned to work the fire, there are still a lot of unfamiliar faces in town.

To feed the army of firefighters, Tony Race has brought in a platoon of volunteers. The order from the fire on Wednesday was 2,400 sack lunches. Compare that with a typical day, when the Chelan Red Apple Market deli might make 20 sandwiches.

KING 1,200 firefighters are battling the wildfire.

The Deer Point fire was started by an abandoned campfire July 15. It has burned a swath of timberland and brush more than a dozen miles long between the lake and the Sawtooth Mountains, primarily on the Wenatchee National Forest.

There were nearly 1,200 people working on the fire, which was 35 percent contained. Firefighters still had about 23 miles of containment fireline left to clear, and Thayer said there was still no time estimate for complete containment of the fire, which so far has cost an estimated $5.7 million to fight.

Northeast of Lake Chelan, the Pickens fire had burned 1,800 acres on private and U.S. Bureau of Land Management property, 5 miles north of Tonasket near the Canadian border, said Brett Walker, a spokesman for the state Department of Natural Resources.

Crews hoped to have it contained by late Thursday and declared under control by late Friday, he said. Bulldozers had cleared nine miles of fireline around the blaze, which was burning in grass, brush and timber.

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KING 5's Jim Forman reports.

The cause of the fire, which started Wednesday, was under investigation.

AP/Jackie Johnston Tyler Clark, 11, helps pack some of the more than 2,000 lunches being prepared for firefighters.

There were 100 firefighters on the scene, and an interagency team of fire specialists has taken over management of the blaze.

The Northwest Interagency Coordination Center, which dispatches fire crews around the region, said a string of thunderstorms crossed Washington and Oregon on Wednesday night, sparking an undetermined number of new fires.

"That did cause quite a bit of problems," said center spokeswoman Jocelyn Biro. "We awoke to uncertainty as to how many fires we actually have out there." About 220,000 acres have burned in Oregon, and almost 11,000 firefighters are working in that state.