The National Weather Service issued a fire weather warning through Tuesday evening for central and northeast Washington state, while unhealthy air quality alerts have also been made for parts of Oregon, Idaho and Montana due to wildfire smoke. One firefighter remains in critical condition at Harborview Medical Center with burns over 60 percent of his body.
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Firefighters in the U.S. are also getting help from Australia and New Zealand.
In Southern California, crews used snow-making cannons to blow water, and planes dropped hearth retardant on a 100-acre wildfire burning close to the favored Snow Summit ski resort in Massive Bear Lake. Officials are still trying to determine how many homes and other structures have been burned.
The dreaded plant is so ubiquitous in the steep wilderness of San Luis Obispo County that crews can’t avoid it, said Bennett Milloy, spokesman for the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection.
The Washington State record fire was measured at 239,733 acres as of Monday morning, having destroyed more than 200 homes so far.
The fierce wind gusts that spurred last week’s tremendous growth ended Friday, but the fires have been active in afternoons as inversions lift and winds pick up.
The biggest fire burning Monday was in Washington’s Okanogan County on the Canadian border, where a group of five fires raging out of control became the largest in state history, scorching more than 400 square miles, fire spokesman Rick Isaacson said.
However, people with asthma or other lung diseases may experience more serious symptoms.
Last week, three firefighters in Washington state were killed and four injured while battling a wildfire threatening the town of Twisp.
Pechota said the Okanogan Complex ranks as the No. 1 priority wildfire in the nation.
The smoke from Washington’s wildfires has caused visibility and air quality problems in British Columbia, but that haze is also acting like cloud cover and calming B.C.’s fires, said fire information officer Kevin Skrepnek.
“These new assets will provide an incredible assist for our firefighters throughout Eastern Washington”, Inslee said. They have been capable of construct a fringe midway across the blaze, however lots of of houses remained threatened within the mountainous space about 100 miles east of Los Angeles.
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While there are now no evacuation orders or alerts in effect for the Grand Forks area, despite the fire’s proximity, McCulley says residents should always be prepared and looking to local government for guidance.
