Cedar Creek, Cub Creek Fires Still Getting Larger

The Cedar Creek Fire near the Methow Valley in Okanogan County is growing in size and is now burning almost 49,000 acres.

Michael Davis with the response team says they're trying to prevent any spread into communities. "We're really working hard to keep the fire out of the Twisp River Drainage," said Davis. "We really don't want to let the fire get down into there and potentially threaten Twisp or the communities between here and the town."

The Cedar Creek fire has not destroyed any buildings in the last six days, and is mostly spreading to wilderness areas to the south.

It's now estimated to be 23 percent contained.

Davis says they're heavily focused getting State Route 20 back open after it closed more than three weeks ago because of the fire being so close.

"We really want to get the people up there back into their homes," Davis said. "We want to reopen that road for tourism and commerce. But we've got a couple of sections that we need to pin down and make sure that it's going to be safe."

It's still not known when the highway will cleared by Okanogan County Emergency Management to reopen for traffic.

The Cub Creek Fire near Winthrop in Okanogan County continues to burn with several Level 2 - Get Ready - Evacuation notices in place for some residents.

Donna Storch with the fire's response team says they've mostly been successful in keeping the fire away from populated areas. "There's been a lot of effort on the western flank, and also on the southern part," said Storch. "We're looking at tying together a fairly good road system along the eastern side."

Firefighters are trying to steer the fire northward into largely wilderness areas. As of Monday, the Cub Creek Fire is burning almost 59,000 acres and is 24 percent contained.

Storch says they're hoping a major weather cool down and possible rain later this week will help their efforts after a storm over the weekend had very little impact.

Smokey and hazardous air has prevented crews from both the Cub Creek and Cedar Creek fires from flying planes to map out the fires' actual size.