WENATCHEE, Wash. (AP) — The wildfire threat has eased for some homes in central Washington state.
The Chelan (shuh-LAN') County Sheriff's office has scaled back the alert for residents in three areas: Sky Meadows, Brisky Canyon Road and Camas Meadows. Residents are being told they should still be prepared to leave if the situation changes.
That's after fire officials reported progress in their battle against fires burning on 143 square miles of parched forest, brush and grass.
There were concerns yesterday that lightning storms and high winds would make matters worse. But the Wenatchee (weh-NA'-chee) Complex Fire command says no lightning developed and the winds moderated, so many of the fires "saw little or no growth."
However, residents of 161 homes north of Ellensburg, about 100 miles southeast of Seattle, have been urged to leave. The Table Mountain fire has burned about 47 square miles in that area and is threatening to merge with another large blaze southwest of Wenatchee.
Sound:
063-a-06-(Jim Gumm, fire information officer for Table Mountain fire, Incident Management Team, in AP interview)-"sides of the fire"-Fire information officer Jim Gumm says with better weather, the crews have made some headway against the Table Mountain fire in eastern Washington state. (23 Sep 2012)
<<CUT *063 (09/23/12)>> 00:06 "sides of the fire"
064-a-11-(Jim Gumm, fire information officer for Table Mountain fire, Incident Management Team, in AP interview)-"more lightning strikes"-Fire information officer Jim Gumm says they were fortunate that the bad weather expected for Saturday never moved in. (23 Sep 2012)
<<CUT *064 (09/23/12)>> 00:11 "more lightning strikes"
130-a-04-(Titus Lucas, football coach for young children at Nevada park in Spokane, in interview)-"it's not great"-Even in areas where there is no fire, there's smoke -- which is causing young children's football coach Titus Lucas to keep an eye on his players. COURTESY: KXLY TV ((mandatory on-air credit)) (23 Sep 2012)
%@AP Links
APPHOTO WAELL103: Don Strand, Fire Behavior Analyst with Washington Interagency Incident Management Team 2, discusses the behavior of the Table Mountain wildfire during media tour north of Ellensburg, Wash., Friday, Sept. 10, 2012. (AP Photo/Daily Record/Brian Myrick) (21 Sep 2012)
<<APPHOTO WAELL103 (09/21/12)>>
