Fire scorches Wenatchee neighborhood, destroys dozens of homes

WENATCHEE – Chuck and Micki Clugston watched as wildfire burned in the hills above Wenatchee as they drove home Sunday night.

High winds and blistering temperatures fueled the flames, but the Clugstons didn’t think their home in a cliffside neighborhood was in danger. Until the pounding came at the door as Chuck ate his dinner.

“They said, ‘The homes behind you are on fire. You need to leave now,’ ” Micki Clugston said Monday.

The Clugstons filled a single suitcase and ran, leaving a collection of fine woodwork and photos of ancestors and children on the walls. Within hours, the Sleepy Hollow fire would rip through the community on its way to swallowing 3,000 acres and leaving about two dozen of the Clugstons’ neighbors homeless.

Phil Mosher, fire chief of Chelan County District 6, said Sunday night’s blaze was one of the worst Wenatchee had seen in two decades, drawing a comparison in intensity to the firestorm that scorched more than 250,000 acres in the Methow River Valley last year.

“Your biggest fear is your people,” Mosher said. “You just do the best you can with what you’ve got.”

Eight strike teams of firefighters from around the state converged on the Wenatchee River valley late Sunday, attempting to funnel a rapidly growing brush fire south and away from the city of 32,700 residents. Strong winds made the fire act erratically and blew embers near the Clugstons’ residence and as far as a downtown recycling facility about a mile away. Explosions rang out in the evening as propane tanks burst in the industrial area along North Wenatchee Avenue, damaging several fruit-packing businesses along the street. Stemilt Growers, with a shipping center in the area, lost an unknown amount of Rainier cherries harvested for the season, a spokeswoman said.

The Clugstons sought refuge at the home of friends Shannon and John Ledeboeter on the east side of the Columbia River. Micki Clugston said she held her husband as they watched the flames inch closer to their two-story home of 21 years.

“From where we were looking, we thought it was gone,” Micki Clugston said.

They waited until late Monday morning to find out if they’d have a home to return to. It wasn’t gone, though flecks of ash and burned debris littering their backyard suggested a close call. After surveying neighbors’ homes, now reduced to stone archways and rubble, Chuck Clugston’s voice caught and tears welled in his eyes.

“Why were we lucky enough? We didn’t lose a thing,” he said. “That makes it really hard.”

There were other lucky moments. Mosher said a few firefighters were treated for heat exhaustion, but otherwise no one was injured or killed. A morning rain shower doused still-glowing embers behind the Clugstons’ subdivision. The flames downtown prompted evacuations and the scare of a reported ammonia leak Monday afternoon, but by evening the smoke began to subside.

Beth Little ate a donated lunch at Eastmont High School, where the Red Cross assisted 155 displaced residents Sunday night, according to spokeswoman Megan Snow, and waited for volunteers to finish playing with her dog, Spike.

“The bad part is not knowing,” she said, also unsure if flames would claim her house a few miles from the Clugstons’.

A few hours later, she led Spike away in a harness, telling him it was time to go home.

With state and local officials predicting a vicious fire season this year, the Clugstons struggled on Monday to make sense of it and place their community’s loss in perspective.

Pictures of the couple’s three sons – Chuck, Rod and C.J. – hung on the walls. A lifetime collection of craft woodworking, including a rolltop desk and grandfather clock, filled the rooms. But the love of family and friends was the most important thing, Micki Clugston said.

“Even if this went to ashes, we’d be OK,” she said.