Wildfire destroys 23 homes, three commercial buildings
A wildfire burning unchecked in Washington state has destroyed at least 23 homes and three commercial buildings near the eastern foothills of the Cascades, state police and emergency management officials said on Monday.
The so-called Sleepy Hollow fire has scorched an estimated 3,000 acres of rolling grasslands and brush in and around Wenatchee in central Washington since it erupted on Sunday, said state patrol spokesman Darren Wright.
A couple of firefighters suffered minor injuries, Wright said.
He said several hundred homes remained under evacuation orders on Monday, as firefighters scrambled to take advantage of heavy overnight showers that slowed the fire’s advance. Crews have yet to establish containment lines around the blaze.
Wright said at least 23 homes west of Wenatchee had burned, and embers blown into town set ablaze and destroyed a recycling center and two adjoining buildings of a fruit-packing storage facility
Hot, dry winds fanned the flames through drought-parched vegetation as the fire zone “blew up” late on Sunday, growing from 200 acres at about 6 p.m. to 15 times that size overnight, said Janet Pearce, a spokeswoman for the state Department of Natural Resources.
The cause of the blaze has not been determined, but it followed a large number of lightning strikes in the region, Pearce said.
With the approaching Fourth of July holiday, state officials were asking residents to avoid using personal fireworks, and a ban on outdoor fires was imposed for state-owned parks and forests.
Washington experienced its worst wildfire season on record last year, with the Carlton Complex fires blackening 250,000 acres. It has tallied more than 300 wildfires so far this year, according to the Natural Resources Department.
The Sleepy Hollow is one of dozens of large wildfires flaring across the western United States, including more than 60 in Alaska alone, where 650,000 acres have burned, the National Inter-agency Fire Center in Boise, Idaho, reported.
The so-called Sleepy Hollow fire has scorched an estimated 3,000 acres of rolling grasslands and brush in and around Wenatchee in central Washington since it erupted on Sunday, said state patrol spokesman Darren Wright.
A couple of firefighters suffered minor injuries, Wright said.
He said several hundred homes remained under evacuation orders on Monday, as firefighters scrambled to take advantage of heavy overnight showers that slowed the fire’s advance. Crews have yet to establish containment lines around the blaze.
Wright said at least 23 homes west of Wenatchee had burned, and embers blown into town set ablaze and destroyed a recycling center and two adjoining buildings of a fruit-packing storage facility
Hot, dry winds fanned the flames through drought-parched vegetation as the fire zone “blew up” late on Sunday, growing from 200 acres at about 6 p.m. to 15 times that size overnight, said Janet Pearce, a spokeswoman for the state Department of Natural Resources.
The cause of the blaze has not been determined, but it followed a large number of lightning strikes in the region, Pearce said.
With the approaching Fourth of July holiday, state officials were asking residents to avoid using personal fireworks, and a ban on outdoor fires was imposed for state-owned parks and forests.
Washington experienced its worst wildfire season on record last year, with the Carlton Complex fires blackening 250,000 acres. It has tallied more than 300 wildfires so far this year, according to the Natural Resources Department.
The Sleepy Hollow is one of dozens of large wildfires flaring across the western United States, including more than 60 in Alaska alone, where 650,000 acres have burned, the National Inter-agency Fire Center in Boise, Idaho, reported.
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