Smoke has drifted into southern British Columbia from raging wildfires in Washington state, as Canadian crews get ready to offer relief to exhausted U.S. firefighters. “Smoke serves as a cap on the fire”.
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Okanogan County Sheriff Frank Rogers says it is too early to say how many homes have been burned by a series of wildfires in the county of 5,300 square miles.
Once the smoke lifts, humidity drops, heat rises and fires can flare up. “People are encouraged to remain indoors to avoid breathing smoky air, which can cause coughing, chest pain and shortness of breath in healthy people”, the announcement said.
Matt Demiter, of the Everett Fire Department, runs his hand through gravel and ash to check the ground temperature while working with crews to stomp out long burning embers remaining after a wildfire near Okanogan, Wash., on Saturday, August 22, 2015.
The fires are about 38 percent contained as of Saturday, officials said.
Spokeswoman Suzanne Flory says visibility has improved and so has air quality, but so far fire activity has not heated up. Look for opportunities to burn off, strengthen control lines…
Some of the land within the fire lines is still burning, but other sections have burned out.
Flory says the good news is that less smokes means restrictions on air travel will be lifted and more fire tankers can fly over and drop water and chemical retardant.
Steve Surgeon, a mechanic and scrap metal seller who lost everything he owns except for his home on the outskirts of Okanogan, said he was just happy to be alive.
“I was coming over several times a day to check on it”, Craig said. “I shouldn’t be, but I am and that’s what matters”.
“People driving around are getting in the way of fire operations”, Miller said. “Everything else can be replaced”. “I guess I’m just going to stay and just try to slowly rebuild”.
Meanwhile, a second of the four firefighters injured in a wildfire on Wednesday has been transferred to Harborview Medical Center in Seattle, the Northwest’s major burn centre.
Two state Department of Natural Resources firefighters who were injured on August 19 near Twisp are recuperating, the agency said Sunday.
Three firefighters – Tom Zbyszewski, Richard Wheeler and Andrew Zajac – died Wednesday when flames consumed their crashed vehicle as they tried to escape this fire.
Officials said a new mobilization center is being formed at Fairchild Air Force Base outside Spokane to assist with the efforts in Eastern Washington, following President Obama’s declaration Friday of a federal emergency.
More than 200 homes have been destroyed and more than 12,000 homes and thousands of other structures are still under threat, officials said.
The 17 states with wildfires are Alaska, Washington, Oregon, California, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, Arizona, Utah, Texas, Wyoming, Colorado, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Louisiana, North Carolina and South Carolina.
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The Okanogan Complex of wildfires was measured at 374 square miles (969 square kilometers) Sunday morning, after growing more than 100 square miles (260 square kilometers) larger Saturday in what fire officials said was a relatively calm fire day.
