Mid-Columbia Firefighters Battle Lightning-Sparked Fires

By Michelle Dupler, Tri-City Herald, Kennewick, Wash.

Jul. 15–Firefighters on Saturday contained most of the scores of lightning-sparked fires that erupted around the Mid-Columbia a day earlier, including a 6,400-acre fire that threatened homes near Benton City.

But dozens of firefighters continued to battle larger fires to the north and west of the Tri-Cities, including a fire in the Columbia National Wildlife Refuge near Potholes Reservoir that had burned an estimated 2,000 acres by Saturday afternoon and still was growing, said Greg Hughes, project leader for the Mid-Columbia River National Wildlife Refuge Complex.

Near Bickleton, two separate fires had burned more than 21,000 acres by Saturday evening. Fire teams from around the state were involved in trying to tame the blazes, which were burning tinder-dry grasses and sagebrush.

And firefighters by Saturday evening had nearly contained the largest fire, a 30,000-acre blaze in the Hanford Reach National Monument. Nearly 300 firefighters, along with 40 engines and tenders, were involved in firefighting efforts near Bickleton, the Reach and Benton City.

Lightning strikes from thunderstorms that ripped through the region early Friday afternoon were responsible for charring tens of thousands of acres. But as of Saturday evening, there were no reports of any injuries or homes burned.

Nearly 2,700 lightning strikes were reported in Washington and Oregon within 24 hours Friday and early Saturday. The strikes sparked 212 new fires, but firefighters were able to immediately contain most of them.

The region may see a slight break from the triple-digit temperatures that have baked the region on and off for the last couple of weeks, but the weather will continue to be hot and mostly dry, said Stephen Latimer, a forecaster for the National Weather Service in Pendleton.

The high today will range in the upper 90s with winds around 15 to 20 mph. Isolated thunderstorms could blow through the region, bringing the possibility of more lightning. But later in the week, temperatures may recede slightly to the lower 90s or upper 80s, Latimer said.

The Overlook Fire, the largest of the blazes, burned about 30,000 acres at the Hanford Reach National Monument, some of it covering the same ground where an August 2005 fire claimed 6,000 acres of shrub-steppe habitat on the Wahluke Slope on the east side of the monument, Hughes said.

Rehabilitation of the land began in 2005 with work to cover burned ground with native grasses, such as Sandberg’s bluegrass and needle-and-thread grass.

The Overlook Fire was about 90 percent contained by 5 p.m. Saturday, in part because the 2005 fire and rehabilitation efforts meant parts of the Wahluke Slope provided fewer weeds and patches of cheat grass to fuel the blaze.

“It slowed the fire down and kept it from burning in that area,” Hughes said.

Dale Warriner, spokesman for Washington State Type 2 Incident Management Team 3, said the Overlook Fire skirted east of where another fire, called the Command 24, scorched 163,000 acres in 2000, including all 70,000 acres of the Arid Lands Ecology Reserve.

The area affected by the Overlook Fire included the White Bluffs boat ramp and land north of the Ringold area, east of the Columbia River and south of Highway 24, Warriner said.

The Overlook Fire was part of the larger Horse Heaven Hills Complex Fire, which the state team took command of Saturday.

The state incident team, which set up a command post at Housel Middle School in Prosser, is in charge of firefighting efforts at the Reach, near Benton City and two fires near Bickleton. Fire officials had no containment estimate for the 18,000-acre Six Prong Fire and 3,000-acre Wood Gulch Fire, both about 10 miles southeast of Bickleton.

Meanwhile, the McBee Command Fire, which roasted about 6,400 acres of brush and grass along Yakitat Road near Benton City, was fully contained Saturday. Firefighters were searching in the burned area for hot spots.

Residents who had been asked to evacuate Friday were allowed to return to their homes.

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Copyright (c) 2007, Tri-City Herald, Kennewick, Wash.

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