Firefighters gain upper hand on Vantage fire

VANTAGE — Firefighters battling the large “Milepost 22 Fire” north of Vantage were able to get the upper hand on the large blaze over the weekend.

The wildfire started about 5:15 p.m. Wednesday evening and grew quickly in size to threaten several homes and infrastructure in Kittitas County. Washington State Patrol Chief John Batiste authorized the mobilization of state firefighting resources about 12:30 a.m. Thursday morning.

Evacuation notices were sent out for select areas in the direct path of the fire, but firefighters were able to wall off those locations before any structures were destroyed or damaged and the notices have since been lowered and canceled.

Mobilization specialists from the Fire Protection Bureau ordered three strike teams and control of the fire was turned over to the Southeast Washington Interagency Type 3 Incident Management Team. The state Emergency Operations Center at Camp Murray in Tacoma was activated to a Level 2 to coordinate the state resources. Personnel from the state Fire Marshals Office responded to help coordinate the resources.

Weather conditions have been up and down since the wildfire broke out, but the intermittent favorable conditions gave crews the opportunity needed to gain containment. As of the Columbia Basin Herald’s press time on Sunday the Department of Natural resources estimated the fire to be about 7,280 acres in size and about 89 percent containment. There have been no reported injuries or structures destroyed.

Richard Byrd can be reached via email at city@columbiabasinherald.com.