Wildfire ash falls on Crescent Bar
CRESCENT BAR – Crescent Bar may not have burned, but it got its share of smoke and ash from the reported 100 or so wildfires in central Washington the past couple of weeks.
Activity came to a standstill for a couple of days, except for residents who washed, blew or swept away ash that fell from the skies.
“Tuesday (Sept. 18) there was ash all over the place,” Elaine Duda said. “It was black on our deck chairs. We had to clean them and sweep the deck. It looked like it was snowing, but it was ashing.”
Elaine and her husband Bob left the next morning on a planned trip to Wendover, Nev. They missed Wednesday's showering of ash.
It was cleaned up by neighbor Wes Prinzen, who used a leaf blower helping out several neighbors.
“We hosed it off the drive-way and several places,” Carol Prinzen said.
“We have seen haze from fires before, but not as serious as all this,” she added.
According to Prinzen, the smoke started to roll in on Sept. 11. The players could see and smell it during a golf exchange between the Crescent Bar ladies and women from other central Washington clubs.
The next day, Duda said, only three members appeared for the weekly women's day competition, and it was cancelled.
Sunserra Homes resident Faye Torgerson noted the first 2-3 days were a matter of heavy smoke in the morning and clearing in the afternoon. However, on Friday, Sept. 14, you couldn't see the river from any of the residential areas or Crescent Bar Road.
Prinzen said the resort was socked in with smoke again on the 17th. There was hardly any outdoor activity, but residents went to bunko night at the Sandtrap Bar & Grill, where they could view the smoke and ash from large rear windows.
“It was real smoky,” Prinzen said. “You could see the sun going down through the smoke. It looked like the end of time. It just looked like doom.”
The smoke cleared greatly on Saturday, Sept. 22, but there was still enough the day before to impress a group of young women from the City Church in Seattle who were camping for the weekend.
“The sunset was spectacular,” one of them said. “It was like a big red ball.”