Fish Lake fire units demobilized

Quick response by local emergency personnel helped contain a fast-moving wildfire that broke out last Wednesday afternoon east of Fish Lake, threatening several homes in forested land southeast of Marshall.

The fire started about 2:30 p.m. just east of a stretch of Burlington Northern Santa Fe railroad tracks between Fish Lake and Queen Lucas Lake, Spokane County Fire District 3 Fire Chief Bruce Holloway said. It spread north rapidly, but was eventually slowed by fire crews assisted by helicopters dropping water scooped out of Queen Lucas Lake along with a plane dropping fire retardant.

Holloway said all of District 3's brush trucks and tenders were deployed on the fire, as were firefighting apparatus and crews from Medical Lake, Spokane Valley, Fire Districts 9, 10 and 13 as well as from Fairchild Air Force Base. The Fairchild crew was something new, Holloway said, coming out of discussions that started after last year's Skyfest Air Show and resulted in a local aid agreement.

"We can access their equipment and also go out and support them," Holloway said.

The size of the blaze was a bit unusual for this time of year, resembling wildfires typically seen later in the summer. It also came at an interesting time, Holloway said in that the state Department of Natural Resources was conducting wildland fire training for new hires and didn't have its normal resources available.

To fill the gap, agencies from the Colville, Okanogan, Wenatchee and North Idaho Panhandle national forests sent one or two engines each. Also sending crews were the Turnbull and Little Pend Oreille national wildlife refuges.

About 150 firefighters were battling the fire at its peak late Wednesday night. GPS eventually determined the size of the fire at 145 acres.

Holloway said the fire was contractually contained, the time when the fire's forward progress is stopped and fire management taken over by DNR, around 10 p.m. Thursday night, but it wasn't officially contained until Friday. Crews were out over the weekend putting out hot spots, and were officially demobilized Monday morning.

Holloway said he expects DNR to have crews patrolling the area for the next few weeks looking for "sleepers," fire that gets into fuel sources such as tree stumps, penetrates the roots and sometimes smolders for days, even weeks before flaring up again.

As to the cause of the blaze, DNR is still conducting its investigation. Besides the railroad tracks, Holloway said there were also power lines in the vicinity of the fire's origin point.

"Unless they (DNR) find something definite, they'll probably say we don't know," Holloway said.

John McCallum can be reached at [email protected].