More Evacuations as Western Wildfires Spread

Firefighters brace for more high winds in the forecast through Friday that threaten to stoke wildfires burning across Eastern Washington. The sun rises in smokey air over a burnt-out ridge along Twisp River Road in Twisp, Wash.

The Chelan fires are 50 percent contained.

Thursday was another tough day for firefighters that’s only expected to get tougher.

The state fire marshal’s office says the fire threatens more than 100 homes and a school.

Okanogan County Sheriff Frank Rogers said the threat to people and homes was lower. “The conditions throughout the area remain extremely unsafe and I hope residents and visitors will heed evacuation orders or other emergency directions”.

Not everyone who was told to leave was willing to go.

As of Thursday morning, officials said, 1,400 residents in the Chelan area were under some level of evacuation order.

A Washington state wildfire that has already killed three firefighters and torched more than 160,000 acres of land continues to burn, but officials say it’s now growing at a much slower pace. Thirteen people died.

In addition to activating the National Guard to fight fires in both states, a reciprocity agreement with Australian fire officials will bring qualified fire line supervisors from down under to the Pacific Northwest in the next several days, Eagle said.

President Barack Obama signed a federal declaration of emergency for Washington State on Friday, authorizing the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and the Federal Emergency Management Agency to coordinate relief efforts in 11 counties and several American Indian reservations hard hit by wildfires.

Mashable found dozens of the firefighters who are using social media to document their backbreaking work.

The center said three firefighters were killed on Thursday. “It gets passed down nearly as a summer tradition in a lot of families. The teams are doing an excellent job to prioritize where we can be effective with resources, sharing those resources, especially our aviation assets we have available here”.

The county is where the three firefighters died.

He was fighting fires for a decade.

One more week, and Zbyszewski, 20, would have been back at Whitman College, telling stories. By this point past year, there had been 37,494 fires that had burned 2.65 million acres. I wish it was me.

Deputy Chief Terry Marsala remembers working with his father, Tim Wheeler, back in the ’70s. He was married and lived in Winthrop, Wash., according to media reports.

Zajac’s mother, Mary, is a senior pastor at Baker Memorial United Methodist Church in St. Charles.

Karen Morey responded to posters with a message about her son.

Officials were anxious that high winds and possible thunderstorms expected Friday in western Montana could exacerbate a wildfire approaching a town near Glacier National Park. We have no additional information at this time. “And I would say, ‘Daniel, I pray for you every night, for all your safety, for you and the others”‘.

A fourth firefighter, Daniel Lyon, 25, was seriously injured and is being treated at Harborview Hospital in Seattle, said Mike Williams, forest supervisor at the Okanogan-Wenatchee National Forest.

She did not release the firefighter’s identity or the extent of his injuries but said he was a 47-year-old man from the Okanogan area.