Canadian Help Requested for Northwest Wildfires

Several large wildfires in Idaho and Washington continued to burn Saturday while smoky conditions are expect to persist across the Palouse off and on this week.

The National Weather Service of Spokane extended its air quality advisory to the middle of the week.

The Sheep fire burning seven miles north of Riggins, Idaho, is 24 percent contained and had burned a total of 29,171 acres as of Saturday evening. Asano Otsu, an information officer speaking about the Sheep fire, said they have received some calls about whether or not the smoke is coming from this incident. She said it has more to do with the weather than the fire.

"The inversion has allowed the smoke to accumulate at lower elevations," Otsu said. "With this type of topography where there's canyons and gulches, it takes a lot for the inversion to break, and we just haven't had that weather change in the last few days (to break it)."

Ty Judd, with the National Weather Service of Spokane, said some smoke was still coming from the Grangeville area fire, but agreed with Otsu that smoke is stagnated in the area because of weak winds. Some winds improved conditions on Sunday, but Judd said smoke is expected to return today.

"A nice change in air mass would be great, but there's just not one coming," Judd said. "You're probably going to see smoke off and on during the week, unfortunately."

The McGuire complex fire also continues to burn in the Nez Perce-Clearwater National Forest areas of Idaho County, with only 2 percent contained and 32,260 acres burned.

Seth Barnes, an information officer for the Washington State Department of Natural Resources in Yakima, said the Okanogan-Wenatchee National Forest is closed because of fires that have burned more than 30,000 acres and prompted evacuations in the Wenatchee area over the past week. Barnes said they are working on containing the newest fires that grew on Friday night near Kittitas and Yakima counties. The Yakima complex fire is burning at about 6,000 acres, and Kittitas was at 3,500 on the last update.

"Right now it's a very fluid situation, as these fires are growing. The wind has increased and the fire behavior has increased, so we're kind of reassessing things and seeing where we're at, at this time," Barnes said.

The Associated Press reported officials are now calling in Canadian fire crews to assist with Washington and Oregon fire fighting. About 3,500 crews from both states are fighting five large fires in Washington, and more than 100 firefighters and support crew members are expected from British Columbia. U.S. officials are also working with Alberta officials to send more firefighters.

Carol Connolly, a spokeswoman for the Northwest Coordination Center, told the AP the number of wildfires in the United States this season has drained resources. More than 14,000 people across the country have fought wildfires this season.

Copyright 2012 - Moscow-Pullman Daily News, Moscow, Idaho

McClatchy-Tribune News Service