A fire burns near Inchelium Monday night.
Fires across the region continued to rage Thursday morning as strong winds helped expand several new and existing fires.
"Large fires smoked out the valleys in western Oregon and had significant growth. ... Large fires in Washington had moderate growth," according to Thursday's morning report from the Northwest Interagency Coordination Center.
Meanwhile, air quality alerts remained in effect until 11 a.m. Thursday throughout most of Western Washington because of the easterly winds carrying smoke from the fires in Eastern Washington.
The largest of those fires in Eastern Washingon -- the Cold Springs and Pearl Hill fires -- have burned more 346,000 acres in Okanogan and Douglas counties. Those two are parts of the same fire, but they started being administered separately when the flames jumped the Columbia River into Douglas County.
A baby died when his family was trying to escape the Cold Springs fire. His parents were taken to Harborview Medical Center in Seattle on Wednesday with third-degree burns; they remained in critical condition in Harborview's intensive care unit Thursday morning, hospital spokesperson Susan Gregg said.
On Thursday morning, the Cold Springs fire was reported at 172,000 acres and 10% contained. The Pearl Hill fire had burned 174,000 acres and was 41% contained as of Wednesday night.
Gov. Jay Inslee on Thursday will visit Malden in Whitman County, which had 80% of its structures -- including its fire station, post office, city hall and library -- destroyed in the Babb Road fire.
The windy conditions helped the Big Hollow fire in southwestern Washington -- first reported Wednesday morning -- grow from 6,000 to 22,000 acres in the Gifford Pinchot National Forest. Officials there plan to close all developed campgrounds, dispersed camping, day-use areas, wilderness areas and all forest roads and trails within the southwestern portions of the forest.
According to the Colombian newspaper in Vancouver, residents of north Clark County were told Wednesday night to be ready to evacuate.
Meanwhile, a fire that caused evacuations in Bonney Lake on Wednesday night has been extinguished, according to a tweet from the Bonney Lake Police. That blaze began behind a Target store, the Bonney Lake Police Department tweeted around 9:30 p.m. Wednesday. Homes within a three-block radius were evacuated.
This story will be updated.
Information from the Longview Daily News is included in this report.
___
