Burn Ban in Effect Across Mid-Columbia
By Franny White, Tri-City Herald, Kennewick, Wash.
Jul. 11–High winds and prolonged heat have made the Mid-Columbia more susceptible to fires, prompting officials to ban burning in Benton and Franklin counties.
The National Weather Service issued a red flag warning through Thursday evening because of hot, windy conditions.
“I would plead with people not to burn outside,” said Les Litzenberger, chief of Franklin Fire District 3, which covers rural Pasco.
The Benton County Clean Air Agency followed fire officials’ requests Thursday and banned residential and agricultural outdoor burning outside of cities and their urban growth areas. Banned fire activities include campfires and burns for tumbleweeds, orchard pruning and along fences and irrigation lines. The county fire marshal also banned burns Thursday.
The state Department of Ecology declared Thursday a no-burn day for agricultural burn permit holders in Franklin County because of the red flag warning.
Litzenberger said he believes area grasses and other fuels are a little drier than usual. He says this has caused more rural land to burn this summer, including 750 acres off Elm Road that was charred a week-and-a-half ago.
The fire danger in Benton County is listed as “very high,” or the second-highest level in a five-step scale.
“We’ve been at ‘very high’ for a while and obviously … things haven’t changed,” said Devin Helland, spokesman for Benton Fire District 1, which covers much of rural Benton County.
To avoid becoming a fire victim, Helland recommends rural residents keep a dirt fire line dug around their property and trim all trees and plants. Litzenberger added that evergreen bushes catch fire quickly and should not be placed close to a home.
Elsewhere in Washington, winds gusting to 50 mph pushed a 500-acre wildfire that burned at least three homes in a heavily wooded part of the suburban Spokane Valley on Thursday evening, and residents of a wide area were told to leave their homes.
At least three homes could be seen burning and officials said more might have been destroyed in the Dishman Hills area, where winds reported gusted as high as 50 mph. Three new wildfires were burning in the area.
Residents of more than a dozen homes have been asked to evacuate, authorities said.
At least six homes were threatened, said Bill Clifford, a spokesman for the Spokane Valley Fire Department. The state Department of Natural Resources was assisting local firefighting efforts.
Other fires in Eastern Washington advanced across rough terrain, burning nearly 9 square miles, as the National Weather Service issued red-flag warnings for wildfire conditions.
Firefighters were battling steep terrain, rattlesnakes and wind gusts of up to 30 mph on a blaze near Tonasket, just south of the U.S.-Canada border, said U.S. Forest Service spokeswoman Robin DeMario.
Evacuation orders were lifted for eight homes there late Thursday, but residents of another 11 homes remained on notice they might have to flee the Cayuse Fire, which has burned at least 1,000 acres. No structures have burned, and nearly 200 firefighters were on the scene.
Residents of more than three dozen condominiums and homes waited and watched as another fire pushed toward a golf course near the town of Orondo, about 20 miles north of Wenatchee.
Authorities alerted residents of about 40 condos to be aware of the fire, which was moving toward the Desert Canyon Golf Course. About 2,000 acres already had burned late Thursday, with 50 firefighters assigned to the fire, DeMario said.
Both fires started Wednesday.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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Copyright (c) 2008, Tri-City Herald, Kennewick, Wash.
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