Lincoln County fire growing

DAVENPORT, Wash. – A new wildfire dubbed the Swanson Lake fire burned Tuesday in mostly grass and sagebrush along with some scattered timber in Lincoln County.

Capt. Scott Crawford, of the Spokane Valley Firefighters, said Tuesday the blaze broke out about 4:30 p.m. Monday and has destroyed an abandoned grange and an abandoned farmhouse.

About 50 homes in the Hawk Creek, Hawk Creek Estates and Dodd Canyon areas were urged to evacuate Tuesday because of the 15,000-acre wildfire, said Mark Morrow, a spokesman for the state Department of Natural Resources. The fire was 10 percent contained Tuesday evening, Morrow said.

Nearly 400 people are working at the scene.

The fire began southeast of Creston, Wash., and moved northeast. It temporarily closed U.S. Highway 2 and state Route 25 Monday night, but the highways were open Tuesday.

Lightning ignited a blaze in Whitman County that has burned 3,000 to 3,500 acres, said Colfax Fire Chief Ralph Walter. About 35 percent of what’s burning is timber.

A Rosalia firefighter battling the Whitman County blaze was hospitalized after suffering burns while riding on the outside of a fire truck, according to Walter. His condition was unavailable Tuesday night.

No homes are threatened, Walter said.

Idaho

Federal fire managers expect rain and colder temperatures to move across Idaho and help put out a series of small fires.

Crews with the federal Bureau of Land Management worked to contain a fire that started Monday and quickly grew to 50 square miles of remote desert north of Minidoka.

“This is by far the largest fire we’ve fought this year,” said Sky Buffat, a spokeswoman for the Twin Falls district of the BLM. “We’ve experienced a very mild season so far.”

Lightning storms this week started several small blazes in southeastern and south-central Idaho, where a wildland fire measured less than a square mile on Tuesday north of Richfield.

Several fires were also burning in wilderness areas north of the Salmon River, said Rick Ochoa, the BLM’s national fire weather program manager. .

A five-mile section of a scenic roadway in North Idaho was closed temporarily after increased fire activity this week. Three fires north of the Lolo Motorway in the Clearwater National Forest were started by lightning earlier this month, said Scott Schrenk, a fire management officer with the Lochsa Ranger District in Kooskia.

Hot, dry weather this week fueled those fires and prompted the road closure, Schrenk said.

“We’re hoping not to have it closed any more than a week,” he said.

In south-central Idaho, lightning storms across the Payette National Forest caused small fires that included a 5-acre blaze north of New Meadows and another on 98 acres in the Indian Valley, forest spokeswoman Laura Pramuk said.

“We’ve been really lucky this summer,” Pramuk said. “We’re having more of a normal fire season this year, as opposed to the last couple of years.”

Montana

High winds and low humidity caused a wildfire east of Townsend, Mont., to grow Tuesday, but not as much as expected.

By nightfall, the blaze had charred between 750 and 800 acres and was about 10 percent contained.

Winds were steady at 15-20 mph throughout the day, with gusts of 35 mph, making it difficult for crews to gain ground.

“Gusts around town did cause it to grow, but not like it was expected, so that was good,” said fire information officer Liz Van Genderen.

Van Genderen said Tuesday evening the Bear Gulch fire was growing to the east – deeper into the Helena National Forest – and still threatening no structures. However, she said a “red flag” weather warning, which indicates very high or extreme fire danger, was to remain in effect in the area until midnight.

Elsewhere, heavy smoke prevented fire managers from getting a good look at the 17 fires burning in the Bitterroot National Forest on Tuesday. However, forest managers expected that higher humidity overnight and throughout the day prevented the fires from growing “too aggressively,” a news release said.

The lightning-caused Wood Hump fire, in the Frank Church River of No Return Wilderness, remained the largest of the 17 blazes, at about 2,200 acres.

Oregon

A storm is expected to drop 1 to 2 inches of rain on many of the Oregon wildfires ignited by a recent flurry of lightning strikes – and give fire crews reason to seek refuge.

“They’ll be moving from putting out flames to just staying warm in some cases,” said John Townsley, of the Northwest Interagency Coordination Center.

Thousands of lightning strikes Sunday and Monday sparked roughly 175 new fires in the state – most of them small.

What had appeared to be the worst of Oregon’s wildfires was coming under control Monday evening. Infrared imaging from an air survey led fire managers to downgrade the size of the Bridge Creek fire in central Oregon’s Ochoco Mountains, three miles south of Mitchell.

The 516-acre Gnarl Ridge fire on Mount Hood continued to burn through rugged terrain. An evacuation advisory issued over the weekend to residents near Cooper Spur and Mountain Shadow remained in effect.