CHELAN, Wash. — There are now 10 large wildfires burning across Washington, with new guidance on evacuations and potential evacuations being issued in Yakima and Chelan counties.
"Quite a situation here in the northwest right now. There are over 60-something fires in Oregon and Washington," said Lonnie Click, an incident commander with the National Incident Management Team. "We have a significant amount of help here fighting our fires."
In Chelan County, the Pioneer Fire is burning more than 30,000 acres, forcing a new advisory for Stehekin. The emergency manager there issued a Level 2 evacuation, putting residents on notice of a potential Level 3 order.
The county is requiring tourists, campers and hikers to leave the area under the Level 2 order. Residents spent Thursday continuing to prepare their homes, raking and clearing anything that could catch fire and setting up hose systems just in case. First responders were on scene as well, helping them protect their homes.
"We watched people getting on the boat this morning, a big tree came over the lines and blocked the road for a little bit and that was a wakeup call to how things can go," said resident Chelsea Courtney. "There's been a lot of coming together for the community, a lot of involvement in the fire meetings and then just neighbors helping each other out, communicating, emailing, everyone's got each other's backs because we know we have to."
Businesses were immediately impacted by the effects. People who want to help can take gift cards or reschedule trips instead of taking refunds and plan visits for when the situation is clear.
Meanwhile, Lake Chelan Chamber of Commerce executive director Mike Steele, who also serves as a state representative, says other towns in the county are still open for business, including Chelan and Manson. He says the tourist evacuation in Stehekin is meant to allow fire crews more room to do their work.
Steele says in his capacity as a representative, he has also been calling for more state and federal resources.
"I requested more state resources about a week ago, those were delivered, and they've helped slow the progression of the fire, but the goal, ultimately, is to get it out," Steele said.
In recent public meetings, residents have raised questions about the management of the fire, and how fires like this might be prevented from growing close to Stehekin in the future.
"All along its been important for us to be heard, the new fire team that transferred in the last few days has been really responsive and they're doing their best, it's easy to underestimate people that live out here like we may not know what's going on but we do and we are trying to be prepared," Courtney said. "It's more of a larger issue that hopefully can become better in the years to come. It is a volatile fire climate now and I think it's going to be a different management style for fires here in the future."
Yakima Valley Emergency Management issued a Level 3 "Go Now" advisory for parts of Yakima County just west of the towns of Tieton and Cowiche.
The Retreat Fire is burning 13,000 acres near Naches and is still growing, according to the Naches Fire Department.
Camp Ghormley, which is a children's summer camp, evacuated out of an abundance of caution. Campers were taken to Naches Valley Elementary School. Waterski campers at Rimrock Lake were not at risk and remained at the camp, according to Camp Ghormley.
US 12 is still closed after shutting down earlier this week. It is closed between the summit of White Pass (milepost 151) and the junction of US 12 and state Route 410 (milepost 185).
Information about each active wildfire in the Pacific Northwest is available through the Northwest Interagency Coordination Center.
The Washington DNR has additional resources available here.