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Wildfires continue to engulf parts of Washington after firefighter deaths
Firefighters make gains against large Washington wildfires as wind dies down
(about 3 hours later)
A series of wildfires in north-central Washington that left three firefighters dead have grown by more than 100 square miles, but officials hoped easing winds forecast for Saturday would allow them to gain the upper hand.
Reduced winds on Saturday helped firefighters gain the upper hand against a series of giant wildfires in north-central Washington that earlier left three firefighters dead.
The Okanogan complex of wildfires was measured at 355 square miles on Saturday, about 100 miles larger than Friday, fire spokesman Rick Isaacson said.
“There were some big runs yesterday,” Isaacson said on Saturday morning.
Thousands of people in towns across north-central Washington state remained under evacuation orders as strong winds drove flames across parched ground late this week. Resources were so strained that on Saturday fire officials planned to provide basic fire training to about 200 volunteers who have machinery like backhoes and bulldozers, so they can use them to help dig fire lines.
Power outages affected several areas, making it more difficult to notify residents about evacuation orders, and the overall situation was too chaotic to even track how many homes had burned. Officials hoped to make progress on that front on Saturday.
“We have lost them, but I don’t know how many,” Okanogan County sheriff Frank Rogers said. “We’ve got no idea.”
Firefighters Tom Zbyszewski, Richard Wheeler and Andrew Zajac died on Wednesday, when flames consumed their crashed vehicle. Four others were injured in the canyon, one critically. But their firefighting brothers and sisters had little time to mourn as raging fires forced entire communities to flee their homes 60 miles away.
As conditions worsened, emergency officials ordered evacuations in Okanogan, with 2,500 residents, as well as Tonasket, a community of 1,000 people, and its surrounding area. Officials also began a Spanish-language effort, on social media as well as in printed fliers, to get fire information to immigrant orchard workers.
Not everyone who was told to leave was willing to go.
“I’ve been up for like 40 hours, and I was very nervous, very concerned because [the fire] was going to take everything we have, us and the rest of our friends,” said Al Dodson, who stayed home despite evacuation orders in Twisp, 40 miles west of Okanogan.
Winds blew at 35mph or more late in the week, but those were expected to ease to 8mph to 12mph overnight and on Saturday, fire spokeswoman Cindy Neff said. Red flag warnings in the area were expected to expire, but the weekend was nevertheless expected to be hot.
Nearly 29,000 firefighters, 3,000 of them in Washington, are battling some 100 large blazes across the drought-and heat-stricken west, including Idaho, Oregon, Montana and California. Thirteen people have died.
There are more firefighters on the ground this season than ever before, and the federal government is spending more than $150m a week on fire suppression, Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack said.
It is not enough. Additional personnel and equipment were being brought in from abroad, as well as the calls for volunteers.
President Barack Obama signed an emergency declaration authorising federal help for 11 Washington counties and four Native American tribes.
Related: Obama declares state of emergency at site of out-of-control Washington fires
Related: Obama declares state of emergency at site of out-of-control Washington fires
The three firefighters who died were based in Okanogan-Wenatchee National Forest, forest spokeswoman Carrie McCausland said. They belonged to specialized crews that immediately assess fire scenes and report back to commanders.
The Okanogan complex of wildfires was measured at 355 square miles on Saturday, about 100 miles larger than on Friday, fire spokesman Rick Isaacson said. But the flames were moving away from population centers in Okanogan County, which by land area is the largest in Washington state.
The crews were in the canyon in two vehicles and on foot when the flames raced toward them. One vehicle made it out safely, but the other, carrying the three firefighters who died, crashed. The four firefighters who were injured were among those who fled on foot, Rogers said.
Thousands of people in the county remained under evacuation orders after strong winds drove flames across parched ground earlier this week. Brad Craig of Omak was told to evacuate on Wednesday, but kept coming back to check on his home.
Wheeler, 31, the oldest of the three, started fighting fires to save money for college and realised he could dedicate his life to something that had meaning, said the Reverend Joanne Coleman Campbell, his pastor at Wenatchee First United Methodist Church.
“I was coming over several times a day to check on it,” Craig said.
“He fell in love with that and decided he wanted to make it his career,” Coleman Campbell said.
On Saturday, he found flames perhaps 30 yards from his back deck. With the help of firefighters, he beat back the flames and was confident he had saved his house.
This was Wheeler and his wife Celeste’s second year living in Wenatchee, after he graduated in 2013 from Grand Valley State University in Michigan. He was a seasonal worker with hopes of becoming a permanent wildland firefighter for the US Forest Service.
“I’m feeling a whole lot better than I was three hours ago,” Craig said.
He had been fighting fires for a decade. His father, who died when Wheeler was two, was a firefighter too.
Resources were so strained that fire officials began providing basic fire training to volunteers who had machinery like backhoes and bulldozers, so they could help dig fire lines.
Zbyszewski also followed in his father’s footsteps. He was the youngest of the three who died, a 20-year-old physics major at Whitman College with an acting bent. He was due to return to school next week.
A second of the four firefighters injured in a wildfire on Wednesday was transferred to Harborview Medical Center in Seattle, the north-west’s major burn centre. Harborview spokeswoman Susan Gregg said the firefighter was transferred on Friday night and is listed in satisfactory condition.
Zajac, 26, was the son of a Methodist minister from Downers Grove, Illinois. He was in his second year as a professional wildland firefighter for the Forest Service and earned a master’s degree in biology last year from the University of South Dakota.
She did not release the firefighter’s identity or the extent of his injuries but said he was a 47-year-old man from the Okanogan area.
Zajac and his wife, Jenn, were married last year after hiking the 2,650-mile Pacific Coast Trail together in 2013, according to a statement from his family released by the Forest Service.
“His thoughts are with the other injured firefighters and those who died,” she said.
“We are saddened that a life with such promise has ended so soon and we will miss him deeply,” the statement said.
Three firefighters were killed and four injured when flames overtook them Wednesday while they were battling the Okanogan Complex. Another firefighter remains in critical condition at Harborview with burns over 60% of his body.
Officials have said the injured firefighters were trying to escape the flames on foot. The firefighter who was newly admitted to Harborview is an employee of the state Department of Natural Resources, agency spokesman Bob Redling said. He was initially treated and released from a hospital in Okanogan, and then asked to go to Harborview, Redling said.
Firefighters Tom Zbyszewski, Richard Wheeler and Andrew Zajac died Wednesday when flames consumed their crashed vehicle as they tried to escape the fire.
Winds that blew at 35mph or more earlier in the week let up on Saturday.
“The winds have died down,” said Angela Seydel, spokeswoman for Okanogan County emergency management.
Okanogan County Sheriff Frank Rogers said flames on Saturday were moving away from population centers in the county of 41,000 people.
“Things are pretty good,” Rogers said.
About 50 volunteers showed up at Omak City Hall on Saturday morning to receive training. Most were ranchers or loggers who had their own heavy equipment. They went to a classroom to be briefed on fire safety and were taught how to deploy emergency fire shelters.
Joe Smillie, a spokesman for the state department of natural resources, said the volunteers would be called up sometime next week.
