by Richard Uhlhorn
Cal Fire Incident Management Team and other agencies actively involved in suppressing the Little Giant Fire held a Community Meeting at the Chelan Fire Station on Friday evening to discuss the current situation with the fire.
Tara Humphries , Forest Supervisor – Okanogan-Wenatchee National Forest, was the first to address the those attending the meeting and a number of individuals who watched the meeting on-line. She acknowledged the impact that this fire was having on the region and told those in attendance that if they felt they weren’t getting the information they needed to check with local median and agencies in charge.
Jack Ackerby, Cal Fire, stated that the fire was now 22 miles from its ignition location and added that this fire is extremely challenging for the firefighters and the community. “You guys are very experienced with fire,” he told those in attendance, mentioning all the fires that have burned in the Lake Chelan Valley over the years.
Ackerby added that the fuels with the fire are very challenging. The lack of snowfall last winter has made the fuels challenging
Smoke:
“When the smoke lies down we can’t fly aircraft which caused a lot of problems for us,” Ackerby said. He added that the team’s priority is to keep the fire away from homes.
Twenty Five Mile Creek is a big box that the team wants to shrink. Because there are no roads where the fire is, the team has deployed four boats to serve both the south and north shores. They are also opening up previous dozer lines that were cut in during the 2015 fire. “We are using local resources and we really appreciate their help.”
Haley Bailey – National Weather Service:
She stated that the weather around the fire has been dynamic. “It has been very active today.” She remarked that this coming week temperatures will cool bringing higher humidity and more active fire.
Dennis Burns – Cal Fire Behavior Analyist:
Burns said, “Right now everything that is on the ground and everything that is standing up is available to burn.” He added that a 1,000 hour piece of wood is a six inch log and stated that it would have only 9 percent moisture. “When you purchase kiln dried lumber, it is 11 percent, so that tells you what the fuels are like.”
“I rain a season slowing event,” said Burns. “What one and a half inches of rain over a three day period would slow the fire down, but would not put it out.”
Barry Burke – Air Resources:
“We do expect to see some improvements over the next few days.” He added that if the smoke goes out, there will be more fire which will bring more smoke. Burke recommended that older individuals and families with young children without the benefit of air conditioning purchase a box fan and a filter to cover it with, install it in a window. “It will remove most of the smoke but not all.”
Ryan Moody – Chelan County Sheriff’s Office:
Moody, who is the Sheriff’s Chief of Special Operations, gave a report on the fire’s evacuation situation. He described the three levels and told the audience, “I’m looking at the crowd and you are kinda veterans at this. Don’t be insulted if I’m telling you something you already know.”
He then told them the different levels of readiness in various sectors of the fire. Fire evacuation levels will change as the fire perimeter changes.
Sheriff Mike Morrison:
Sheriff Morrison stated that he has 60 committed deputies working on the fire but also performing their normal duties of law enforcement. “We have Chelan County Search and Rescue knocking on doors. We’ve been through this numerous times. If we get hammered, response time might slow down.” He added that he really appreciated the community’s help and reminded them that it’s just property that can be replaced.
Chief Brandon Asher – Chelan Fire and Rescue:
Asher stated that he appreciated the community coming out for the meeting. “We’ve benn through this before,” stated Asher. “This fire season has been a bit of a grind for us since June. It seems that every five days we are responding to a fire.”
Dan Grlyard – Acting Entiat District Ranger:
“We are making sure all roads are cleared to keep everyone safe. We are chasing our closures farther out,” he said. He added that after the fire is over, the district still has to restore the land to prevent mudslides.
Pat Russell – Cal Fire Incident Commander:
“The local agencies made it very clear of what they wanted us to do,” Russell said. He lauded all the different agencies involved in suppressing the fire and added, “We see how much they care about these communities.”
“Our priority is protecting values at risk,” said Russell.
He thanked the communities for their support and said a new incident management team would be taking over on Sunday, August 9, as Cal Fire transitions out. He added that there would probably several more transitions of incident management team over the course of the fire. Incident management teams come in for a two week stint before being relieved by another team.
After the presentation, residents wandered around the Fire Bay collecting information from the various booths that had been set up and getting questions answered.
All Things Lake Chelan 