The
Newell Road Wildfire has already destroyed several structures in
the area and is threatening homes, farms, crops and livestock,
solar and wind farms and a natural gas pipeline, county
emergency officials said.
The fire was also moving toward the Yakama Indian Reservation,
Allen Lebovitz, a spokesperson for the state's Department of
Natural Resources, said in an interview in Bickleton, a
community of about 80 people about 120 miles (190 km) east of
Portland, Oregon.
"It's very difficult terrain to fight fire," Lebovitz said. "We
are under a red flag warning. That's a firefighter's worst
nightmare because the humidity is dropping precipitously. The
winds are picking up. And so the fire carries extremely fast."
Firefighters from across the area have descended on the blaze
that is burning just north of the Columbia River, which marks
the state's border with Oregon. Officials have not said what
caused the fire, and there have been no reports of injuries or
deaths.
(Reporting by Matt McKnight in Bickleton, Washington; Additional
reporting by Jonathan Allen in New York; Editing by Paul Simao)
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