PALMER FIRE

Photo Credit | WA DNR

SIT REP 1 | 8/18/2020

Incident Summary

A wildfires is burning about 5 miles ESE of Loomis, Washington State.

Fire assets were dispatched via the Northeast Washington Interagency Dispatch Center on Tuesday at 1456 hours PT to the Washburn Road area in Okanogan County, Washington.

Fire is northwest of Swash Creek.

Incident #SPD-1947

Current Status

The fire behavior currently is extreme with running, backing, torching and spotting, as it reaches areas with timber and structures in its path.  It is currently running down the hillside towards Watauga Lake Road and Blue Lake.

Division Zulu | Crews have line around structures and it is holding. They are doing really well. (2133 PT)

Resources 

WA DNR resources and assets include AA 2QM AA 4TS AR 27 BC 32 BC 601 BC 603 C 6201 DNR 33 E 6695 E 692 FB 201 FB 202 FB 244 FB 245 FP 18 H 344 HB 171PL HI 25 (IC) HI 26 HI 27 HI 60 HI 7102 HI 7103 HI 7104 HI 7106 HI 7108 HI 7110 HI 7112 SO 30 T 102 T 152 W Zone 10 quickly arrived on-scene of a wildfire at 1517 hours, Tuesday afternoon.

Incident Command looking for air resources for Wednesday: 4 additional fire bosses, multiple Type 1 and 2 helicopters, 3 LAT and 1 lead planes. Says its been difficult for air resources due to high competition/demand from the State of Oregon.

Evacuations in Effect

LEVEL 2 | BE READY | South and West of Watauga Lake.

Wildfire Preparedness Level Escalated

Nationally speaking,

The National Multi Agency Coordinating Group (NMAC) will elevate the National Preparedness Level has been increased to 5 (PL5), effective at 2000 MST, August 18 due to significant fire activity occurring in multiple geographical areas, an increase in incident management teams being committed and heavy commitment of shared resources to large fires nationally.
Given the continuing hot and dry weather and the increase in initial attack and large fires in the western U.S., the decision to move to Preparedness Level 5 depicts the complexity that fire managers are encountering to assure that adequate firefighting resources are available for protection of life, property and our nation’s natural resources.
PL5 is the highest level of wildland fire activity. Several geographic areas are experiencing large, complex wildland fire incidents, which have the potential to exhaust national wildland firefighting resources. At least 80 percent of the country’s IMTs and wildland firefighting personnel are committed to wildland fire incidents. At this level, all fire-qualified employees become available for wildfire response.
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Photo Credit | Joe Bradshaw/BLM

Through the Eyes of Social Media

Fire being reported by Residents, seen from these locations:

  • Aenas Lookout, flames were seen running uphill.
  • Hwy 7 at 6 Miles S. Looking west and northwest.
  • From Palmer Lake
  • From Loomis
  • Hwy 7 and Ernie Robinson, Oroville
  • Cherry Street in Oroville
  • From Omak airport

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(c) 2020 NW Fire Blog – Updated 8/18/2020 – 2140 PT