Fire Update Sept 24th

By: Kevin Smith, U.S. Forest Service
Attached is the most recent update on all the fires, some good progress is being made. Sears creek fire has not really moved much and remains contained by Sears creek and Canyon creek on it’s flanks and crews continue to work around homes at the bottom as well as the Sears creek road. Basalt is slowly backing towards Chickamin creek and the main Chiwawa road.

There is a map at Midway store from yesterday (9/23/12) showing current perimeters for fires in the north end of the complex, and additional smoke and other info is available at this site: Smoke

For the complete update, please:

At 6:00 PM tonight the Chelan County Sheriff’s Office reduced the evacuation levels for the following areas:
Level 1: Mission Creek Road, Tripp Canyon, and Sand Creek Road.

Level 2: Squilchuck and Mission Ridge Roads from the Wenatchee Heights Road south, including Halvorson Canyon and Hampton Road, to the Mission Ridge Ski Area.

The Chelan County Sheriff has restricted access to roads in the Colockum Ridge area to local traffic only. These roads include the Stemilt Loop Road from Upper Wheeler Road to just north of and including Jump-Off Ridge Road and Colockum Road at Tarpiscan Road. The Washington State Department of Natural Resources closed state lands accessed by these roads earlier in the week for public safety in the event of eastern spread of the Table Mountain and Peavine Fires. A multi-agency law enforcement task force will sweep the closure area early this week to contact citizens who may have entered the area prior to the closure.
Weather conditions today allowed firefighters to use a helicopter to burn out in the vicinity of Highway 97. The highway was open all day and will remain open tonight. Travelers should check with the Washington State Department of Transportation for highway restrictions.

Firefighters made good progress again today with rehabilitation, mopup, and fire suppression efforts on the fires within the Complex.
The Peavine fire and the north end of the Table Mountain fire remain the highest priority for the Wenatchee Complex. Managers from both Complexes have developed a plan to check the spread of the Table Mountain fire along the eastern flank and are using a burn out operation along Highway 97 on the western flank.

- Canyon Fire – 7,559 acres, no growth – 95% Contained
- Byrd Fire – 14,160 acres, no growth – 90% Contained
- Poison Fire – 5,909 acres, decrease of 82 acres – 70% Contained
- Peavine Fire – 18,626 acres, growth of 10,744 acres* – 30% Contained
- First Creek Fire – 1,258 acres, no growth – 90% Contained
- Pyramid Fire – 1,068 acres, increase of 524 acres – 0% Contained
- Klone Fire – 1,323 acres, increase of 252 acres – 0% Contained
- Cashmere Fire – 1,418 acres, increase of 664 acres – 0% Contained
- Basalt Fire – 690 acres, increase of 553 acres – 0% Contained
- Sears Creek Fire – 184 acres, no growth – 0% Contained
- Maverick Fire – 30 acres, no growth – 100% Contained
- Other Fires within the complex – 412 acres, decrease of 2,546 acres* – 20% Contained
*Changes in acreage of the Peavine and ‘Other Fires’ are due to the inclusion of smaller fires into the Peavine Fire.

The Incident Management Team would like to express appreciation to the community for your support and help in our efforts to suppress these fires. It is vital that the community cooperate with evacuations, road closures, and avoiding areas of high traffic for fire suppression. Please slow down and turn your headlights on when traveling through smoky areas.
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Wenatchee Complex Incident Information
509-662-4438 or 509-662-4694