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White River & Irving Peaks Fire Update MONDAY SEPTEMBER 19TH

Fire updates will be occurring about once a week, or as conditions change.

According to the latest infrared map showing where heat is present, the White River Fire is ¼ mile from the Windmill Lane cabins on Windmill Lane. The fire is slowly backing downhill towards the road. Firefighting resources are trying to clean up the fuels between the fire’s edge and their containment lines, but the weather hasn’t allowed them to do much of that recently.

Only about 2/100 of an inch of rain has fallen in the fire area over the past two weeks. The relative humidity has increased with the recent storm fronts, but the warming and drying trend this week will cause fire activity to increase as fuels dry out. Fires may be a little more active this week due to warmer temperatures.

White River Fire: 3,373 acres 10% contained

Irving Peak Fire: 3,407 acres 7% contained

Meander Fire: 9 acres 0% contained

Minnow Fire: 650 acres 0% contained

Crews are continuing to utilize firelines from past fires and have set management action points. The Minnow Fire will be putting up more smoke this week as it burns out pockets of timber, then it will die down as it makes short runs into rocky areas. The good news is that it is getting shaded out earlier in the day as the hours of daylight diminish.

Smoke: We may see smoke settling into valleys this week due to the warmer temperatures and due to less winds carrying the smoke out of the area. Smoke from Minnow Ridge Fire was visible from Beaver Hill on Sunday. We anticipate that the Minnow Ridge Fire will be the most active with the warm and dry weather this week.

Weather: Hotter and dryer weather is expected. There was no lightning over the area on Saturday, the storms mainly affected Chelan and Entiat Ranger Districts northeast of the fire area.

Closures: No changes in closures. Trail and road closures remain in effect.

Evacuation levels: A Level 2 evacuation remains in effect for White River Road 6400