[1]Two helicopters drop water as dozens of firefighters on the ground work to stop a fire off Centralia-Alpha Road. / Courtesy photo by Lori Nelsen
Updated at 12:43 p.m.
By Sharyn L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter
CHEHALIS – A fire of unknown origin broke out southeast of Chehalis yesterday, growing to approximately 12 acres as it consumed brush and trees.
“The fire is knocked down, there’s not active fire now,” Chuck Turley, assistant manager of the Pacific Cascade Region of the state Department of Natural Resources said this morning. “We’re trying to keep it that way.”
Local firefighters called around 3 p.m. yesterday to the area roughly a half mile north of the intersection of Centralia-Alpha Road and North Fork Road headed towards a large smoke column and found a fairly large brush fire, Lewis County Fire District 6 Chief Tim Kinder said.
“We concentrated on a small farm at risk of being taken down,” Kinder said.
Crews from rural Chehalis, Napavine and Onalaska protected the small house until personnel from DNR arrived, he said.
DNR put into service more than 40 firefighters, a bulldozer and two helicopters which dropped water on the flames. A helicopter is on standby this morning.
The wind was swirling up above and constantly changing directions, Kinder said. “And it was a lot of heavy, thick brush.”
The active fire was knocked down last night and the last tender crew from Lewis County Fire District 6 was released about 7 o’clock this morning. Crews with two tenders from Newaukum Valley Fire and Rescue were on the scene this morning, Kinder said.
Turley said they’ve dug a line around all but about 300 feet and consider it 60 percent contained this morning.
Fueling the blaze was standing timber as well as relatively newly planted trees, he said, with lots of blackberries and lots of salal.
It’s the third time in a week fire has sprung up on the property. Turley said his crews were out there last Tuesday and Wednesday.
“All I’ll say about that is the cause is under investigation,” he said.
Approximately 50 DNR personnel are working out there today, he said.
Turley said the lower temperatures and that the relative humidity came up overnight were helpful.
He’s expecting a four to five day reprieve with the weather and then on Tuesday it’s forecast to get very hot again, he said.
Turley said he’s not sure how much longer they will be out there.
“I would imagine it will take more than just today to get it completely controlled,” he said.
It was just last Friday when the Commissioner of Public Lands urged the public to take the utmost care not to spark fires, citing a combination of worsening conditions and the probability of multiple large fires by mid-week.
Seven active large fires are burning in the state currently, including one that broke out about 1 p.m. yesterday in Klickitat County and is already approximately 10,000 acres, according to authorities. That blaze, near the town of Roosevelt in south Central Washington called the Highway 8 Fire, is threatening 350 homes and evacuation orders have been put in place.
Several local firefighters departed yesterday evening to help out, including two from Newaukum Valley Fire and Rescue, three from West Thurston Regional Fire Authority and two from Thurston County Fire District 12.