Fire managers say they’ve had some success putting in containment lines on a 340-square-mile fire in the southwest part of the state straddling the Oregon border.
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As of 8:00 a.m., August 14, 2015, the Lawyer Complex Fire has burned almost 12,000 acres near Kamiah, Idaho.
Fire crews are doing everything possible with the resources at hand to fight the fires.
About 100 IBEW Local 1245 members from PG&E were dispatched to the area and worked closely and safely with first responders, but the rugged, steep terrain made the areas in need of restoration and pole replacement extremely hard to access.
Winds in the West are helping stoke wildfires sweeping across the Northern Rocky Mountains, Pacific Northwest and elsewhere, posing problems for firefighters trying to contain the flames fed by drought. “They’re already dead, dry fuel”, she said. The focus Friday was to dig and burn containment lines along the south and eastern perimeter of the fire where it had crept into Napa County, posing a potential threat to the remote Berryessa Estates, a community evacuated during the Butts wildfire previous year.
The chaos was especially intense in Chelan, which was surrounded by fire, and Orofino, Idaho, where officials were scrambling late Friday.
“That stopped the fire from spreading any further”, he said. He had no estimate on its size, but said the fire easily covered thousands of acres of national forestland, private range, and homesteads. “You can’t deny how risky this work is”, says Bill Sessa, a spokesperson for the state’s Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation.
At one point the Jerusalem fire rubbed shoulders with the Rocky fire and the two threatened to merge.
Prisoners are given a four-week training course to ensure they’re able to work in the heat of a fire while carrying up to 100 pounds of gear.
Matt Crafton, wine maker at Chateau Montelena told the trade body: “We’re at the top of the Napa Valley and haven’t experienced any smoke at all in our vineyards”.
The release advises property owners to be cautious if a worker shows up on your doorstep saying your home is unsafe, doesn’t have a permenent place of business, asks for personal information, claims to be FEMA certified – FEMA does not certify general contractors – or a deal seems too good to be true.
A blaze northeast of Colville scorched nearly 5 square miles and forced evacuations at campgrounds in the area. The lightning-caused fire north of Bonners Ferry has been burning since July 29.
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The temperatures, though not record-breaking, are still about 10 degrees above average for this time of year, Seto said.
