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 Several miles of containment lines have been put in place around the
perimeter of the Carlton Complex Fire, which has burned through
243,000 acres since it was sparked by lightning on July 14, fire
officials said.
A drop in temperatures on Sunday, with rain expected later in the
week, was helping some 1,700 firefighters get a handle on the blaze
about 120 miles northeast of Seattle, authorities said.
“We’ve seen a lot of really good progress these past couple of
days,” said Joseph Stivey, a fire spokesman with the U.S. Forest
Service. “But it’s still an active fire. We don’t have any percent
containment just yet.”
The fire, one of about 18 raging from northern California to Idaho
as the annual fire season nears its summer peak, has been especially
vexing because it is near populated centers in Washington’s
picturesque Methow Valley, home to about 10,000 people.
One fatality was linked to the Washington fire, a 67-year-old man
who died of a presumed heart attack while working to save his home
near the town of Carlton from encroaching flames, Okanogan County
Sheriff Frank Rogers.
Robert Koczewski, a retired Washington State Patrol officer and U.S.
Marine, had been fending off the blaze for two days when he died on
Saturday, Rogers said.
As evacuation orders were issued in about a half-dozen towns last
week, several people were initially unaccounted for, but by Monday
“there were zero reports of missing persons,” said Rogers.
“I’m amazed. The first days of the fire we had people trapped.
People we couldn’t get to. We were just really lucky,” he said.
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The blaze has scorched at least 336 square miles of dry timber and
grasslands in north-central Washington over the past seven days.
Evacuation orders had been lowered in many areas, including the town
of Pateros, which saw nearly 40 homes and dwellings destroyed,
Rogers said.
Washington Governor Jay Inslee toured damaged towns on Sunday,
meeting affected residents and pledging help to rebuild homes.
The region's biggest fire, the lightning-sparked Buzzard Complex in
eastern Oregon had expanded to 395,000 acres on Monday. The fire has
a 380-mile perimeter, and smoke conditions were reported up to 100
miles away, the Bureau of Land Management said.
(Editing by Cynthia Johnston and Jim Loney)
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