08:04 AM PDT on Tuesday, August 9, 2005

From KING5.com Staff and Wire Reports

KREM

The School Fire in southeast Washington burns near a home.

POMEROY, Wash. - Firefighters have begun assessing the damage from a 37,000-acre wildfire that whipped through canyons, wheat fields and forests in southeastern Washington, destroying more than 100 residences.

The School fire, the largest wildfire burning in the state, which was considered 20 percent contained as of early Tuesday. With the fear of it spreading, national fire managers made containing the fire a top priority, assigning about 1,200 firefighters to battle the fire.

Crews say the fire is so intense and the smoke so heavy, it was difficult to determine what has been burned by the fire. Some estimate some 50,000 acres will have been destroyed.

George Broyles, a spokesman for the interagency team fighting the fire, said good lines had been established around three sides of the fire late Monday.

Concern was focused mainly on heavy timber in the Umatilla National Forest to the south, where few residential structures are located, said Clay Barr, Garfield County director of emergency management.

More than 100 residences near Pomeroy were believed to have burned, most within the forest, though firefighters had yet to assess damage in areas still smoldering.

"We had about three minutes to grab what we wanted," said one evacuated resident. "You just go to move forward."

About 20 of the ruined residences were probably full-time homes and the rest were likely hunting cabins, vacation homes or pads for recreational vehicles, Barr said. Broyles confirmed 35 residence had been burned.

Fire officials met Monday night with about 175 area residents at the high school in Pomeroy to answer questions, give a brief history of the fire and explain what was planned in the next 48 hours, Broyles said. Another meeting was scheduled Tuesday night at the fairgrounds in Dayton.

The southern edge of the fire was moving into steeper, rougher terrain, in many areas inaccessible by bulldozer, “so we have to start inserting (fire) crews,” Broyles said.

Bill Ruchert said he and other relatives were helping his nephew build a log cabin in the woods Saturday when the fire approached.

“By 10 o’clock the column had gotten pretty big, and by 4 o’clock that afternoon it was getting to the point we were concerned because ash and debris from the fire had been falling on us all day, although none of it was hot. It was falling out of the sky,” Ruchert said.

The family fled and later learned the modular home they had been living in while the cabin was being built was destroyed, along with a brother’s cabin a few hundred yards away.

The rolling terrain in the fertile Palouse region of southeastern Washington is unusual, with grass and farm fields at lower elevations, timber in gullies and drainages and wheat fields covering hilltops, said Don Ferguson, a spokesman for the Northwest Fire Coordination Center.

Kate Koch

Kate Koch took this photo of the smoke plume from downtown Pomeroy, Wash.

The fire blew up from about 150 acres Saturday morning. Farmers plowed broad swaths of earth through fields of wheat and other crops, trying to create fire breaks and save their harvests.

The cause of the fire remained under investigation, though fire officials believed it may have been caused when a tree fell on a power line Friday.

One firefighter was injured when a vehicle overturned Monday. The firefighter treated at a hospital in Lewiston, Idaho, and released, said an officials.

In northcentral Washington, the Burnt Bread fire was estimated at 1,300 acres and was 25 percent contained. About 120 firefighters were assigned to the fire, which started Saturday about 21 miles southeast of Tonasket and destroyed a barn. The cause was under investigation.

Crews were laboring to keep the flames from advancing north into the Okanogan National Forest, where dense stands of beetle-killed timber would provide ready tinder, firefighting spokeswoman Cindy Reichelt said.

Reichelt said what makes this a complex incident is there are homes in the area that fire crews can't even find.

"A lot of them aren't defensible," she said. No access in or out, no water available. It's very difficult to protect these places."

Updates on the state's other major fires:

-The Dirty Face Fire near Lake Wenatchee, about 18 miles northwest of Leavenworth, was reported 60 percent contained at 1,100 acres. About 100 homes had been evacuated and other area residents were advised to be prepared for evacuation as hot, dry weather continued. More than 675 firefighters were at the scene, working with trucks and helicopters to douse the fire and strengthening fire lines near the Whispering Pines subdivision. Fire crews hoped to have full containment by Wednesday.

- The Lick Creek Fire near Cle Elum had charred about 670 acres and was 50 percent contained by Tuesday morning, a fire official said Tuesday. Residents of 30 homes on the north fork of the Teanaway Creek were evacuated. About 500 firefighters were fighting the blaze and found that relatively wet grasslands were helping containment efforts.

The fire, which started Thursday, was believed to have been caused by logging equipment that caught fire. No structures had burned, and no injuries were reported.

The cost of fighting that fire was $1.7 million, 40 percent of the cost for aircraft, said officials.

Storm sparks three wildfires in Oregon

A storm that moved through the Vale area in eastern Oregon sparked at least three fires.

The largest blaze has already grown to between 1,200 and 2,000 acres.

Called the Keeney Pass Fire, the blaze had already forced several roads in the area to be closed.

Firefighters are conducting a burnout operation to get the fire under control.

NWCC

Malheur County Sheriffs Lieutenant Craig Smith says they have made significant progress.

A fire near Cow Hollow has charred more than 800 acres, and is considered the most active of the three.

Ad a fire off Arabian Drive in Payette dubbed the Arabian Fire has blackened more than 250 acres.

That fire is 90 percent contained.