Crews are making good progress at the huge fires burning in North Central Washington state. Fire crews have made the most advancement at the enormous Carlton Complex, which at 250,000 acres is the largest fire in state history.
Fire information officer Sharon Kyle says crews have been able to achieve more than half containment of the fire as of this morning, in part because the rain that fell Wednesday. He says "They have built over 182 miles of line on that fire, so they have had significant progress over the last couple days, especially yesterday with the weather.”
The storms did contribute to a couple of minor debris flow events, with heavy rain pushing burned trees and mud across some roads.
The nearby Mills Canyon fire is now at 90 percent containment. The fire burning near Cheney, the Watermelon hill fire, is now fully contained. Forest service officials in the Colville National Forest say lightening strikes likely did start some small fires there, but they won’t be able to tell until temperatures warm up by the weekend whether those fires are serious.
Temperatures expected to climb back into the 90’s by Sunday.
