Central Washington wildfire burns 70 homes
Tom Colvin, 63, of Cle Elum, Washington, pauses while sifting through his belongings Tuesday after his house succumbed to the Taylor Bridge Fire. 'This October I would have had the house for six years,' said Colvin. 'I didn't quite make it.'
CLE ELUM (AP) - Gusty winds and high temperatures hampered efforts Tuesday to control a fast-moving wildfire that has already destroyed 70 homes and burned across more than 40 square miles on the east slope of the Cascades.
The fire was burning on grassland, timber and sagebrush east of Cle Elum.
At least 400 people have been evacuated, but no injuries were reported from the blaze, which began at a bridge construction site Monday afternoon, state Department of Natural Resources Fire Incident Commander Rex Reed said.
Fire commanders estimated the blaze has burned across at least 28,000 acres? - almost 44 square miles - and was estimated at zero percent containment. Fire crews were arriving from across the state Tuesday, with as many as 600 expected by the end of the day.
Over a dozen Grant County fighters were dispatched Tuesday afternoon.
DNR requested strike teams from a combination of fighters from Grant County Fire Districts Nos. 3,4,5 and 13, as well as crews from Ephrata and Moses Lake fire deparments.
"The fire industry is a family, so when they call for help, we're more than willing to go out and help them," District No. 5 Captain Travis Svilar said. "It doesn't consists of here in the county. It consists of all throughout the state."
Brad Rorem and his two sons were at their family cabin high on a hill up a windy, forest road. They were preparing gear to float the Yakima River and fish when they spotted the blaze under the bridge from their deck.
"It sort of erupted, and the wind was blowing hard in our faces," he said. "It just shot up so fast."
The homes of at least three neighbors were gone, said Rorem, 50, of North Bend.
"We feel really fortunate to have gotten off the mountain in time," he said.
A number of homes that have burned are along Bettas Road near Cle Elum.
Joe Seemiller, a captain in Kittitas County Fire and Rescue, and his crews monitored the edge of the fire Tuesday near the Yakima River, trying to keep it from crossing where there is a subdivision of homes nearby on the other side.
"Unless Mother Nature helps us out here, we're going to be fighting this awhile," Seemiller said.
Gov. Chris Gregoire declared a state of emergency for Kittitas and Yakima counties in response to the Taylor Bridge fire.
Also, air support from the Washington National Guard has been called in.
About 15 evacuees stayed overnight at Munson Hall on the Central Washington University campus in Ellensburg, said spokesman Robert Lowery. The building is a dormitory usually used for conferences and could take a total of 150 evacuees, he said.
The state Transportation Department said a 14-mile section of U.S. Highway 97 was closed because of the fire.
The fire started along Highway 10 between Ellensburg and Cle Elum, said Kent Verbeck, a commissioner and one of the volunteers with Fire District 7. Dry terrain and windy conditions pushed it quickly.
"It eventually got so big and spread so much late last night we were dealing with miles of fire front," he said.
Hot, dry conditions were expected to continue in the region through the week, and authorities worried about the extreme fire danger.
- Herald staff reporter Zachary Van Brunt contributed to this story