The Huckleberry Ridge Fire was 8% contained as of Tuesday afternoon, with incoming cool weather anticipated to help firefighters further contain the fire in the coming days.
“The weather coming in will moderate the fire even further and assist us with mop up operations moving forward,” Washington State Incident Management Type 3 Team Operations Chief Steve Westlake told The Chronicle on Tuesday.
Westlake provided the update from the fire camp on Pe Ell McDonald Road in the Boistfort area.
The Huckleberry Ridge Fire has burned 293 acres, including a spot fire separate from the main blaze, on Weyerhaeuser land 20 miles south of Pe Ell.
No structures have been threatened. Officials don’t anticipate there will be any road closures or evacuations for this fire, but the public is still asked to stay out of the area while crews continue working to contain the blaze. A temporary flight restriction over the fire area is in place.
“Crews have been successful in preventing additional fire growth over the last two days,” the Western Washington Type 3 Incident Management Team said in a news release Tuesday afternoon. “There is still considerable work to be done to finish securing the fire edge with containment lines due to the very steep terrain and heavy logging slash and timber fuel types. However, more line is completed each day utilizing one type one hotshot crew, multiple type two initial attack crews, heavy equipment and other critical resources.”
Officials expect fire containment to slowly increase as the days go on while mop-up is done along containment lines.
Crews are running a helicopter sling load mission to fly in pumps, fuel, hose, sprinklers and other supplies to an area surrounding the spot fire located north of the main fire to aid in containment efforts, according to the Western Washington Type 3 Incident Management Team.
A total of 338 personnel, including 12 hand crews and 30 engines/tenders, were working the fire as of Tuesday.
The cause of the fire is under investigation.
For updates, visit https://www.facebook.com/WWIMT or https://inciweb.wildfire.gov/incident-information/wapcs-huckleberry-ridge-fire.
