LINDA ASHTON
Associated Press Writer
LEAVENWORTH, Wash. (AP) -- Firefighters were digging into the steep, rocky, heavily forested eastern slopes of the Cascade Range early Sunday to create a 30-mile buffer around the 6,500-acre complex of wildfires near this tourist town.
The Icicle fire complex has grown more than 2,500 acres since Friday, spread by wind across drought-stricken country. There was no containment early Sunday, but crews expected that to come soon.
``We're getting a good secure line, tying into old roads, old trail and old burned areas from 1994,'' said Icicle Fire information officer Art Wirtz.
He said the ``old burn,'' which is recent enough to deprive this year's flames of fuel, is very important.
The fire, which has forced evacuation of 50 homes and has residents of scores more prepared for a quick exit, could potentially put about 2,000 homes and businesses at risk. No homes had been destroyed and no injuries were reported.
It was just one of eight major fires in Washington, where nearly 100,000 acres have been burned across the state's arid east side in the past week.
Fire engines from around the state converged on the community to protect it from the Icicle complex of more than 20 fires.
``This is the No. 1 priority fire in the region because of all the houses,'' said fire information officer Greg Thayer with the Wenatchee National Forest.
Winds spread a fire in the Colville National Forest from 1,400 to 3,000 acres on Saturday. About 15 homes were sent notices warning of a possible evacuation.
Winds also were blamed for spreading fires in the Wenatchee National Forest _ at 24,000 acres _ and the Tonasket complex in the Okanogan National Forest at 2,680 acres.
In southern Washington near the Columbia River, a wildfire was reported Saturday night on 5,000 acres east of Goldendale in Klickitat County.
Across the West, 26,000 firefighters were at work battling 30 major fires that had blackened 504,044 acres, said the National Interagency Fire Center in Boise. No serious injuries have been reported so far. Last month, four Eastern Washington firefighters were killed in a different round of blazes.
In northern California, the Ponderosa Fire had scorched more than 1,200 acres and crept dangerously close to dozens of homes between Colfax and Auburn, about 40 miles northeast of Sacramento. Some homeowners left voluntarily and others were warned to prepare to leave.
Oregon had 12 major wildfires, two of them new, on 232,000 acres.
``We're winning the war,'' said 79-year-old Monument, Ore., resident Gus Peterson, who had used his red pickup, fitted with a 240-gallon water tank and a coiled hose, to help a small army of firefighters battle the blaze flanking the town.
Fire crews had scraped and burned a perimeter outside of Monument to keep the 26,000-acre fire away from homes.
In northern Nevada, weary firefighters faced a new fire that had burned 13,000 acres by Saturday.
Fifty homes had been evacuated in Leavenworth since the middle of the week, about 30 of them Friday night, when the wind-driven fires raced across an additional 1,000 to 1,500 acres. Residents of 200 homes were warned that they might have to leave.
No homes had been destroyed but fire crews were putting out small fires around five houses.
``For once, we got a fire along a road where we can drive a fire engine in and squirt water on it,'' Thayer said.
Weather conditions improved somewhat Saturday, with temperatures dropping from the 90s to the 80s and humidity increasing, but gusting winds in the afternoon sparked more fire activity.
National Weather Service forecaster Jon Fox cautioned that ``even 10- to 20-mile winds can spread fire pretty rapidly.''
Rain and temperatures in the 70s were expected Tuesday, which will ``help squash those things,'' Fox said.
The threat didn't slow down Loren Haskins of Northfield, Minn., who continued helping his daughter and son-in-law build a new home in Leavenworth even though residents of their area had been told to be prepared for evacuation.
``We're very optimistic. We just keep building,'' he said. ``If it's going to burn down, it will just be a little more or a little less.''
