Entiat Fire

[Rainier10]

Just saw this story this morning.  Hopefully they get it fully contained.
http://www.king5.com/news/local/Wildfire-near-Lake-Chelan-Friday-161555675.html

by KING 5 News


Posted on July 6, 2012 at 6:36 AM

 Updated today at 7:35 AM


A wildfire that sparked Thursday near Lake Chelan increased to 200 acres Friday.
 
The fire is burning around Navarre Coulee Road in the town of Entiat, about 12 miles southwest of Lake Chelan State Park.
 
Tony Gilmer with the Washington Department of Natural Resources Southeast Region estimated firefighters have a perimeter around about 40 percent of the fire.
 
The Wenatchee World reports 33 homes in the area are under differing levels of evacuations, depending on their proximity to the fire.

In addition, Navarre Coulee Road remains closed and there are boating restrictions on the Columbia River where helicopters are picking up water.
 
Highway 97A from the Columbia River west to Lake Chelan will have restricted access throughout the day.
 
New pictures of the fire, taken by viewer David DeVorkin, show firefighters working on steep hills covered in dry grass, brush, and sparse timber.
 
Thursday, the fire threatened to evacuate some of the area's residents.
 
The high temperature is forecast in the upper 90s Friday and over 100 on Saturday and Sunday.
 
The Associated Press contributed to this report.

[MtnMuley]

The fire is burning around the Navarre Coulee road in the town of Entiat?     Gotta love the wetside news knowledge about the dryside.

[Heredoggydoggy]

The fire is burning around the Navarre Coulee road in the town of Entiat?     Gotta love the wetside news knowledge about the dryside.

   The dumb sh!ts can't even look on a map to verify their story.  The fire is probably closer to Entiat than Chelan, but Navarre Coulee is nowhere near the Town of Entiat.

[Rainier10]

Come on man give us some details if you have them.  200 acres is relatively small compared to the fires in the last few years. If it is on the rolling hills it is probably easy to contain, unless it is windy and if it is in the steep and deep stuff that gets trickier.  What are you hearing about the real story?

[MLBowhunting]

Hope they contain it before someone looses a home

[Rainier10]

Hope they contain it before someone looses a home

For sure, I have a cabin next to DNR and Forest service land and we have been told that the fire fighters are only responsible for protecting the forest and not personal property.  They do however try to keep the homes from burning because they are actually a hotter longer burning fire once ignited than the trees are.  In essence if they can keep the house from catching fire they have a better chance of saving more trees.

Still not a fun place to be if your house is in the line of the fire.  Especially with the winds they get over there, you can be in the clear one minute and in the direct path the next minute.

Hopefully they will get it contained and be able to keep it contained.

Last year near our place a small 1-2 acre fire broke out and they had to keep guys posted there for a week afterwards because the winds kept kicking up and getting the fire going again.

[Heredoggydoggy]

Last I heard, the fire quieted down last night at 250 acres.  I haven't been up Navarre Coulee in a while, but except for a small area at the bottom, it's steep hillsides.  Tough place to fight a wildfire.  Hot weather is here, and the fire season is beginning!

[Rainier10]

Last I heard, the fire quieted down last night at 250 acres.  I haven't been up Navarre Coulee in a while, but except for a small area at the bottom, it's steep hillsides.  Tough place to fight a wildfire.  Hot weather is here, and the fire season is beginning!

Thanks for the update, hopefully they keep it under control.  Any word on how it started?  The one next to us last year was kids shooting off fireworks.  It was too dry in the valley so they moved up to the National Forest to shoot off the fireworks  morons. 

[Heredoggydoggy]

Haven't heard on a cause yet.  When they determine the cause, no doubt it will be something stupid!
Last year a friend who lives up Mission Creek in Cashmere had to run down to a neighbor's property to help put out a fire caused by morons shooting fireworks near dry brush.

[Russ McDonald]

Here is a link to the DRN website that gives updates on fires http://www.dnr.wa.gov/RecreationEducation/FirePreventionAssistance/Pages/Home.aspx and here is the page to that fire http://www.dnr.wa.gov/Publications/rp_fire_currentfireinfodailyupdates.pdf

[HoofsandWings]

The fire is south of Johnson Creek and west of Davis Canyon T27N R21E Section 28.
It is burning along the Navarre Coulee road.

[Russ McDonald]

http://www.inciweb.org/incident/2994/ better link.

[Heredoggydoggy]

Now called the "Navarre Fire", just heard on the radio that with the heat of the day, the fire has grown to an estimated 300 acres, but is moving south away from residences.  One helicopter that was dropping water has been sent to a new fire near Ellensburg called the Wenas Fire.

[PlateauNDN]

Now called the "Navarre Fire", just heard on the radio that with the heat of the day, the fire has grown to an estimated 300 acres, but is moving south away from residences.  One helicopter that was dropping water has been sent to a new fire near Ellensburg called the Wenas Fire.

Wenas Fire!   that sucks any other info. on that one?

[Heredoggydoggy]

Now called the "Navarre Fire", just heard on the radio that with the heat of the day, the fire has grown to an estimated 300 acres, but is moving south away from residences.  One helicopter that was dropping water has been sent to a new fire near Ellensburg called the Wenas Fire.

Wenas Fire!   that sucks any other info. on that one?

Sorry, no.  Just heard that it was a new one, and one of the choppers has been sent there to help.  Hope they get it stopped before it can go too far!

[Sumpnneedskillin]

According to WADNR twitter feed  https://twitter.com/waDNR_fire

#WaWILDFIRE‬ UPDATE - ‪#Uptaneum2‬, 50+ acres, smoke visible from I-90 and ‪#Ellensburg‬ valley (4hrs ago)
NEW ‪#WaWILDFIRE‬ - ‪#Uptaneum2‬, 10 miles S of Ellensburg, 50+ acres, air & resources on scene.  (4hrs ago)

#WaWILDFIRE‬ UPDATE - ‪#Navarre‬, 12 miles W of Chelan, 185 acres, resources on scene, more http://bit.ly/3CrDV (10hrs ago)

[Heredoggydoggy]

According to WADNR twitter feed  https://twitter.com/waDNR_fire

#WaWILDFIRE‬ UPDATE - ‪#Uptaneum2‬, 50+ acres, smoke visible from I-90 and ‪#Ellensburg‬ valley (4hrs ago)
NEW ‪#WaWILDFIRE‬ - ‪#Uptaneum2‬, 10 miles S of Ellensburg, 50+ acres, air & resources on scene.  (4hrs ago)

#WaWILDFIRE‬ UPDATE - ‪#Navarre‬, 12 miles W of Chelan, 185 acres, resources on scene, more http://bit.ly/3CrDV (10hrs ago)

The twitter feed is somewhat behind.  The Navarre fire was estimated at 200 acres last night, 250 acres this morning, and the latest estimate just after 6 pm tonite was 300 acres.  This from info on KPQ radio in an interview with a Forest Service spokesperson/fire information officer.  Maybe somebody in the Ellensburg area has info on that fire.

[cougkilr]

Hope they contain it before someone looses a home

For sure, I have a cabin next to DNR and Forest service land and we have been told that the fire fighters are only responsible for protecting the forest and not personal property.  They do however try to keep the homes from burning because they are actually a hotter longer burning fire once ignited than the trees are.  In essence if they can keep the house from catching fire they have a better chance of saving more trees.

Still not a fun place to be if your house is in the line of the fire.  Especially with the winds they get over there, you can be in the clear one minute and in the direct path the next minute.

Hopefully they will get it contained and be able to keep it contained.

Last year near our place a small 1-2 acre fire broke out and they had to keep guys posted there for a week afterwards because the winds kept kicking up and getting the fire going again.

Thats not true, the DNR, USFS or structure fire fighters will asess the structure and rate it depending on the situation, if the structure has good defensible space and they determine that it should make it through the fire they will do nothing, if it needs help they will start cleaning up around it or putting sprinklers on it or even wrapping it in a fire resistant wrap.  That is if it is safe to do all of that.  If there is no hope for the structure or it is too dangerous they will leave it and hope for the best.  I fought fires for the DNR for the past 6 years, last summer on the Monastery fire we did structure protection and dug line around an old shed, if possible they will try to save all structures. On that same fire last year they dropped retardent on every house that was close to the fire line...there roof was red but most of them survived.

[Rainier10]

What is not true?  When I asked DNR representatives to come meet with our homeowners association they said their main concern was the forest not personal property unless saving the more combustible house would save more trees/ if house doesn't catch on fire trees close to it won't either.  If house has defensible space trees won't catch on fire because trees aren't close enough to house.  It sounds like when you were working for DNR if there was defensible space you did nothing and in other instances you sprayed fire retardant on houses.  I am not sure what you are trying to say, what is not true in my statement?

[cougkilr]

The part where you said that the firefighters are ony repsonsible for protecting the forests and not personal property, I can tell you that you can go to any forest fire and firefighters will be doing everything possible to save peoples personal property, as in structures. Not sure who you talked to but you need to talk to someone in the Fire Wise program.  In most cases the timber catches the house on fire so I'm not sure what they would be talking about with saving the more combustible house, it sounds like you talked to someone who didnt really know what they were talking about.  No DNR rep. who had a clue about the DNR's fire mission would tell homeowners that their main concern was the forests and not personal property.  Theres grants and free programs within the fire wise program to help rural communities and homeowners to get their properties fire safe.

[Russ McDonald]

http://inciweb.org/state/27/. 

Maybe this will help General Firefighting Principles [urlhttp://lib.store.yahoo.net/lib/pennwell/Chapter1.pdf][/url].  I work with USFS firefighters and have gone through their fire refresher class.  This is one of the things they talk about.  I have been a volunteer firefighter and work with firefighters we were trained on I zone fire fighting/structure protection.  The first thing in a wild land fire is of course to put the fire out but when structures are thretened a division will be set up of structure protection.  Resources will be called in to provide that.

[Russ McDonald]

 

The part where you said that the firefighters are ony repsonsible for protecting the forests and not personal property, I can tell you that you can go to any forest fire and firefighters will be doing everything possible to save peoples personal property, as in structures. Not sure who you talked to but you need to talk to someone in the Fire Wise program.  In most cases the timber catches the house on fire so I'm not sure what they would be talking about with saving the more combustible house, it sounds like you talked to someone who didnt really know what they were talking about.  No DNR rep. who had a clue about the DNR's fire mission would tell homeowners that their main concern was the forests and not personal property.  Theres grants and free programs within the fire wise program to help rural communities and homeowners to get their properties fire safe.

[elkslayer069]

 cougarkl is right personal poperty is second in line behind human life at dnr as far as protection goes I also think you talked to someone who didn't have a clue about the dnr fire program. Hey coug where do you work outta engine hand crew? 

[cougkilr]

I'm a forester, during fire season we go as needed, either as an overhead position or on an engine if they need permanents to man engines during the busy times

[cougkilr]

Elkslayer, This is my first fire season in six years that I won't be doing fires, I'm still getting the itch, especially when things are starting to pop all over.  I just left the DNR last month and went to a private timber management company, I worked in Elbe for the past four years. It will be nice to have my summers back and not have to worry about getting dispatched at any time.

[elkslayer069]

Right on this is my sixth year doing fire and third as an engine leader outta chehalis so did you work for pc or south puget?

[Transka]

 :tup:This is probley the best picture i could find of the Fire as of sat at 1:00pm they said it was 75 percent contained

[Rainier10]

The part where you said that the firefighters are ony repsonsible for protecting the forests and not personal property, I can tell you that you can go to any forest fire and firefighters will be doing everything possible to save peoples personal property, as in structures. Not sure who you talked to but you need to talk to someone in the Fire Wise program.  In most cases the timber catches the house on fire so I'm not sure what they would be talking about with saving the more combustible house, it sounds like you talked to someone who didnt really know what they were talking about.  No DNR rep. who had a clue about the DNR's fire mission would tell homeowners that their main concern was the forests and not personal property.  Theres grants and free programs within the fire wise program to help rural communities and homeowners to get their properties fire safe.

I was told first thing in the briefing "Good afternoon, we are from DNR, that stands for Department of Natural Resources, not Department of taking care of your mountain cabin.  It is the homeowners responsibility to make a defensible space around their cabin."  He went on to say "The reality is your cabin creates a hotter fire that burns more of our natural resources so saving your cabin may need to happen to save our resources but keep in mind it is your job to do all you can to protect your cabin in the first place, don't bank on us coming to the rescue. And if you think the Ellensburg fire department is going to come up here think again you are outside of their coverage zone."  Because my cabin doesn't fall under the local fire department juristiction, the first responders will be DNR fire crews, with them being in charge of Natural Resources and not personal property I have to pay higher insurance since I am not covered by the local fireman.  Sounds like since our meeting five years ago with DNR that policy has changed and now the official stance is to protect my property, that is great and I should be able to take this information to my insurance company and get a lower rate.  Can you PM me your contact information so I can get them in touch with you to explain how my cabin will be protected by DNR in the event of a forest fire?  I see you are not with DNR anymore but hopefully you still know some guys that can get this cleared up with the insurance company, we have a ton of vacation cabins that will love to hear that they are actually protected by DNR firefighters. 

elkslayer069 maybe you could PM me also, sounds like you are still employed with DNR and maybe have easier access the infomation that will help me, in particular you said "personal property is second in line behind human life".  I am guessing third in line is the natural resources correct?  I am thinking if you have something that you can send me showing that my cabin/personal property is second on the list of protection behind human life that will help me and others in our community with our insurance delima.  Thanks in advance guys, alot has obviously changed in the five years since DNR came to our homeowners meeting.

Back on the fire it is great to see the Entiat fire is 75% contained, I heard it got bigger today but containment is awesome

[firefighter4607]

Hey Rainier10, here is a quick answer for you. The skinny on your insurance thing is since you don't have a fire department that is responsible for your property you pay more for insurance. It's is kind of " no man's land" since the DNR and the local fire district dont collect taxes on your property they don't promise to save your home. Those areas of no man's land departments don't like to fight fire there because they aren't getting paid to protect it.
Now if there is a big fire there the state will foot the bill. If there is a fire around your house and they have a overhead team, they will do a assessment of your home to see if it is defendable or not. If they think they can save it with little to no prep work they will try to save the house the best they can.  If you don't have  defensible space or your home will risk lives to save it they will write it off.

[Jack Diamond]

Ask the folks at the Silver Dollar Cafe east of Moxee about being in "no mans land" with
A fire crew on scene, eating lunch!!

[Russ McDonald]

Hey Rainier10, here is a quick answer for you. The skinny on your insurance thing is since you don't have a fire department that is responsible for your property you pay more for insurance. It's is kind of " no man's land" since the DNR and the local fire district dont collect taxes on your property they don't promise to save your home. Those areas of no man's land departments don't like to fight fire there because they aren't getting paid to protect it.
Now if there is a big fire there the state will foot the bill. If there is a fire around your house and they have a overhead team, they will do a assessment of your home to see if it is defendable or not. If they think they can save it with little to no prep work they will try to save the house the best they can.  If you don't have  defensible space or your home will risk lives to save it they will write it off.

That is correct.  It is all about defensible space around you house or cabin http://www.dnr.wa.gov/RecreationEducation/FirePreventionAssistance/Pages/Home.aspx this link probably has the information your looking for.

[Rainier10]

Oh I am aware of defensible space, I have done a bunch of work on my place over the last 15 years to help in the event of a fire.  I have 20 acres of forest land and the pine beetle was wreaking havoc on the trees when we first bought the property.  I was just suprised to hear from cougkilr and elkslayer069 that DNR was now going to protect property before the trees.  That was a change from what I was told a few years back.  It is great to hear that human life is top priority and second is property after being told in the past that the resources came before my personal property.  I have been preaching to our homeowners association that it is their responsibility to create a defensible space because in the event of a fire we were on our own as far as our cabins go, but it sounds like that is no longer true and DNR will come in and save our cabins before moving on the the forest above us.

[firefighter4607]

It looked like they changed the law in 2010 to start charging a fee to land owners whom own land that are forest or that are near forests. Still you have to remeber where the nearest DNR station is to you. Say you live in Goldendale and you have a cabin in the Simcoes. DNR has a station in Goldendale but if you have a fire in the mountians it could take 1/2 hour to an hour just to get on scene. That is if the station is manned and it was called in right when it started. With a red flag warning and depending on the rate of spead on the fire it could consume a few acres by the time the first unit arrives on scene. During that time it could consume your home. It is a risk you take when you own a home in BFE. Maybe if you have enough people interested your home owners association could start your own small fire department or buy a wildlife equiped truck to protect the area. You might even be able to apply for some sort of grant to help buy one.

[Rainier10]

Thanks firefighter, we did check into starting our own response team, one owner even had a firetruck to donate to the association.  It didn't go through though, maintenance costs and getting people to volunteer were the issues.  Everyone thinks it is a great idea right up until they actually have to do something then they are busy.  For now I will pay the higher rates, at least I can get coverage and maintain my own defensible space.  I have an email in to DNR as of yesterday asking if they really are going to defend my cabin in case of fire, I will let you know what I hear back from them, if it is an email response I will post it.

[danderson]

 After 26 years of firefighting  in rural Kittitas County I can tell you that the number one priority in fighting fire in the urban interface is safety, in other words risk nothing to save nothing, risk alot to save alot, theres lots of conditions that affect the outcome to a large fire, weather its in a remote location with narrow roads having one way in and one way out, weather conditions, fuel types, building construction, and defensible space around the structures, the DNR typically doesn't do structure protection, that's not there specialty, structure protection is left up to a trained engine company usually from a volunteer or paid district, if the fires within a protection district, if the fires outside a protection district the structure protection may be provided by a neighboring fire department as part of its mutual aid agreement, if theres one in place, if the fire grows in size were all available resource's cannot contain it and if conditions are present for continued spread of it boundaries, the state will take over control of the fire with a management team, (state mobilization) Then resources from all over the state come in and manage the fire from a operations center, one thing that you might do as a community is go to the local rural fire department and look into getting fire protection coverage, if outside the boundaries of the department it could be contracted, another good program is firewising your property's, there is a program in kittitas county that has a 50% matching grant program to help rural community's reduce fuel loads in community's, or for individual homeowners.