08/09/2005

Associated Press

Firefighters have begun assessing the damage from a 37,000-acre wildfire that whipped through canyons, wheat fields and forests in southeastern Washington, destroying more than 100 residences.

About 840 firefighters were assigned to the School fire, which was considered 20 percent contained as of early Tuesday, officials said.

George Broyles, a spokesman for the interagency team fighting the fire, said good lines had been established around three sides of the fire late Monday.

Concern was focused mainly on heavy timber in the Umatilla National Forest to the south, where few residential structures are located, said Clay Barr, Garfield County director of emergency management.

More than 100 residences were believed to have burned, most within the forest, though firefighters had yet to assess damage in areas still smoldering. About 20 of the ruined residences were probably full-time homes and the rest were likely hunting cabins, vacation homes or pads for recreational vehicles, Barr said.

"We can confirm 35 (residences burned) right now," Broyles said.

The fire started Friday.

Fire officials met Monday night with about 175 area residents at the high school in Pomeroy to answer questions, give a brief history of the fire and explain what was planned in the next 48 hours, Broyles said. Another meeting was scheduled Tuesday night at the fairgrounds in Dayton.

The southern edge of the fire was moving into steeper, rougher terrain, in many areas inaccessible by bulldozer, "so we have to start inserting (fire) crews," Broyles said.

Bill Ruchert said he and other relatives were helping his nephew build a log cabin in the woods Saturday when the fire approached.

"By 10 o'clock the column had gotten pretty big, and by 4 o'clock that afternoon it was getting to the point we were concerned because ash and debris from the fire had been falling on us all day, although none of it was hot. It was falling out of the sky," Ruchert said.

The family fled and later learned the modular home they had been living in while the cabin was being built was destroyed, along with a brother's cabin a few hundred yards away.

The rolling terrain in the fertile Palouse region of southeastern Washington is unusual, with grass and farm fields at lower elevations, timber in gullies and drainages and wheat fields covering hilltops, said Don Ferguson, a spokesman for the Northwest Fire Coordination Center.

The fire blew up from about 150 acres Saturday morning. Farmers plowed broad swaths of earth through fields of wheat and other crops, trying to create fire breaks and save their harvests.

The cause remained under investigation, though fire officials believed it was not caused by lightning.

One firefighter was injured when a vehicle overturned Monday. The firefighter treated at a hospital in Lewiston, Idaho, and released, Broyles said.

In northcentral Washington, the Burnt Bread fire was estimated at 1,300 acres and was 25 percent contained. About 120 firefighters were assigned to the fire, which started Saturday about 21 miles southeast of Tonasket and destroyed a barn. The cause was under investigation.

Crews were laboring to keep the flames from advancing north into the Okanogan National Forest, where dense stands of beetle-killed timber would provide ready tinder, firefighting spokeswoman Cindy Reichelt said.

South of that fire, more than 675 firefighters were the Dirtyface fire near Lake Wenatchee, about 18 miles northwest of Leavenworth, which was 60 percent contained at about 1,100 acres. No homes were evacuated.

Nearly 500 firefighters were assigned to the Lick Creek fire near Cle Elum, which had charred about 670 acres and was about 50 percent contained, firefighting spokesman Dale Warriner said.

The fire, which started Thursday, was believed to have been caused by logging equipment that caught fire, Warriner said. No structures had burned, and no injuries were reported.

The cost of fighting that fire was $1.7 million, 40 percent of the cost for aircraft, he said.