Hope fire size increases to 6,365 acres with no containment
Updated estimates for the fire put the total at 6,365 acres Saturday morning, up by nearly 750 acres from Friday morning's estimates. It remains 0% contained.
The increase in acres is primarily in areas where firefighters already established an indirect line, a fire control line constructed a distance away from the main fire edge, Northwest Complex Incident Management Team 8 spokesperson Thomas Kyle-Milward said.
"I don't think it's a situation where it's unexpected growth. It's just the fire kind of moving around in the box that firefighters are creating for it," Kyle-Milward said.
The fire started around 1:15 p.m. Tuesday and quickly spread north, driven primarily by wind, according to a news release from the Type 3 Incident Management Team.
In a Saturday morning release, officials said fire personnel would work along the western side of the fire and dozer line construction, a fire suppression tactic involving bulldozing flammable vegetation, will begin in the northwest corner of the fire working toward Lael Road.
Crews at the north head of the fire continue to establish a containment line, and to the south the Columbia River continues to act as a strong containment tool.
On the fire's eastern flank, teams will continue mop-up operations around homes while crews patrol the area.
Two primary residences are confirmed to be lost to the blaze, Kyle-Milward said. There are no damage estimates.
So far, 546 personnel have responded to the fire. To allow for their safety, the public is encouraged to stay out of the immediate fire area.
Level 1, 2 and 3 evacuations remain in effect. The Red Cross Evacuation Center at the Kettle Falls Middle School is only open on an on-call basis. The Animal Evacuation Center at the Northeast Washington Fairgrounds remains open.
The cause remains under investigation.
Bonny Matejowsky's work is funded in part by members of the Spokane community via the Community Journalism and Civic Engagement Fund. This story can be republished by other organizations for free under a Creative Commons license. For more information on this, please contact our newspaper's managing editor.
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