High winds force road closures, help spread fires
Smoke from fires north of Moses Lake turned the sky gray and hazy Monday afternoon.
EPHRATA — A severe windstorm Monday closed roads all over eastern Washington, was a factor in the rapid spread of a massive fire — a fire that caused street lights in Ephrata to come on in mid-morning — downed power lines and toppled trees.
Blowing dust and various fires closed roads from Okanogan County to the Tri-Cities to Spokane, including I-90 near Ritzville for about seven hours. Washington Department of Transportation officials said on social media that 10 different roads were closed at about 4:30 p.m. due to the fires, the poor visibility and a number of car accidents.
The Cold Spring Canyon-Pearl Hill Fire started near Omak Sunday night, first reported about 9:30 p.m. Winds pushed it south nearly to the Grant County line by Monday afternoon. Smoke from the fire produced such poor visibility in the Ephrata area that the street lights were on at about 10 a.m., according to pictures posted on social media.
The fire forced evacuation of Mansfield and Bridgeport in Douglas County, but as of 9 p.m. no evacuation notices had been issued for northern Grant County.
Grant County Fire District No. 13 and Ephrata Fire crews used “back burn” operations (controlled burns to remove potential fuels) in an effort to keep the fire north of Highway 2 at the Grant County-Douglas County line.
A second fire in Grant County started Monday afternoon on Beverly Burke Road, forcing Level 3 evacuations along a portion of the road near Wanapum Dam.
Grant County PUD crews reported widespread outages in the northern part of the county and the Royal City area. Most power was restored by 5 p.m.
Cheryl Schweizer can be reached via email at [email protected].