Multiple fires keep Grant County crews busy

QUINCY — A car fire that turned into a brush fire closed SR 28 near Quincy for about six hours and prompted evacuation notices Sunday afternoon.  

Grant County Fire District 3 Chief David Durfee said the fire bordering SR 28 was about 85 acres, but difficult terrain and weather conditions made it a challenge to fight.  

“It was a wind-driven fire,” Durfee said, started by a car that caught fire in the eastbound lane. That ignited the grass and sagebrush on the south side of the highway.  

The fire started about 3:30 p.m. Sunday. The fire burned the slopes between Trinidad and SR 28, crossed the highway and prompted Level 3 evacuation notices for the area between Road T Northwest and the Douglas County line. Those were canceled at about 11 p.m. 

Fire crews had to deal with winds and steep terrain, but Durfee said GCFD 3 crews got help from other agencies – and got it fast, which was crucial. 

“This time of year, getting on the fire quickly by asking for mutual aid is a huge benefit,” he said. “We’re helping each other out – it's really a cool system.”  

Because of the terrain and rapid spread, GCFD 3 officers requested help from all Grant County agencies, as well as from Chelan and Douglas counties. In addition, the Washington Legislature revised the regulations governing requests for air support a few years ago. Durfee said that allowed GCFD 3 to get an expedited response to their requests for air support.  

“We were able to get air assets on it quickly,” he said. 

That response included the aircraft water drops and multiple fire trucks as well as bulldozers, which helped speed up fire line construction. That helped crews use the terrain to their advantage. 

“(The fire) got caught in the ravine,” Durfee said. “We were able to push it up to the dozer line at the top of that hill.”  

Crews were monitoring the scene throughout the night, he said.  

Grant County Fire District 5 crews responded to a fire on Road O Northeast and East Wheeler Road that burned about 30 acres Saturday night. Even though the fire was in a relatively developed industrial area, it too presented some challenges of terrain. 

“More than anything, it was the just the location,” said Travis Svilar, Grant County Fire District battalion chief.  

The fire was between a canal bank and a water treatment pond used by a food processor, he said; it was not only a restricted space, but swampy, which made it impossible for fire trucks to get close.  

“We had to let the fire burn to us,” he said.  

The situation was complicated by strong winds. “We were getting 20 to 25 mile-per-hour winds, sustained, and we were getting gusts up to 40 mph,” Svilar said.  

Firefighters contained the fire at the canal bank and kept it from spreading to an adjoining wheatfield, he said.  

The cause of the fire is undetermined, Svilar said, but with the extremely dry conditions, he urged people to use extreme caution when they’re outdoors. While people are observing the ban on outdoor fires, even normal activities can start a fire. Svilar cited the routine summer chore of mowing the lawn.  

“Your blades hitting a rock – you're going to start a fire,” he said.  

The hot dry weather has also dried out the grass, weeds and sagebrush. 

“It’s hot and dry out, our fuels are hot and dry, and we’ve got the wind pushing these fires around, and they just run where they want to go,” he said.  

Svilar said it’s already been a busy fire season and challenging for fire crews countywide, professionals and volunteers alike. 

“When they predicted, we were going to have a very busy wildland fire season, they were right,” he said.