Barker Canyon wildfires 60 percent contained

COULEE DAM - Firefighters made substantial gains Thursday at the Barker Canyon Complex fires, moving from 20 percent to 64 percent containment of the blaze.

"The crews have done really, really well at improving these lines and securing perimeters around houses," incident spokeswoman Karen Ripley said.

Fighters are gearing up for a cold front Friday night, which can bring with it wind gusts up to 20 miles per hour.

"It's not as bad as Monday night, but everything needs to be ready," Ripley said.

Most of the fire's small fuels, grass and sage, have been pretty much burned through.

"But there are places that could re-flare if they get the wind on them," she said.

These include larger fuels: smoldering fences, tree stumps or shrubs.

Crews have been working hard to create 500-foot perimeters around homes and a 200-foot perimeter around the fires' boundaries.

Fire crews in the Wenatchee area now estimate charred acres to be 25,000 with more than 750 homes under different levels of evacuation warning.

More than 900 personnel are on scene with 8 percent of the fire contained as of Thursday night.

Gov. Chris Gregoire met with incident crews Thursday in Wenatchee to review firefighting efforts.

She signed an emergency declaration, giving fighters access to the National Guard.

Meanwhile, the Apache Canyon Fire between Odessa and Creston was declared 100 percent contained Thursday, incident spokesman Chuck Turley said.

"This is winding down rapidly. Fighters had a really good day," he said.

He expects Friday's shift to be light and, if all goes as planned, to turn management of the fire over to local authorities on Saturday.

Turley said that it's a double bonus to have the fire under control: homes are no longer threatened, plus it frees up more resources for other fires in the area.

"Most people aren't going to go home," he said. "They're going to be going to another fire."