Firefighters Protecting Stehekin, Deploying New Air Resources

Firefighters have spared every structure in Stehekin from the advancing Pioneer Fire, sometimes by a matter of a few feet.  Not a single structure has been damaged according to California Incident Management Team 15 which led a Media tour into the area on Saturday.

The team is the 5th assigned to the 37,850 acre fire since it started June 11th.  Another team will takeover in about a week, according to Stephen Fillmore, Incident Commander Trainee.

Fillmore said the fire has burned as close as 20 to 100 feet from structures right in the  Stehekin Landing area but the protection measures including 40 miles of hose lines, sprinklers, structure wraps and handwork by firefighters has been successful in preventing any structure loss.  Fire has burned all the way down to the Stehekin Road in some places.

Fillmore explains the fire was burning on the ridges above Stehekin Landing when Team 15 arrived on August 2nd.  The fire has advanced about 3/4's of a mile towards the head of the lake and down slope  toward the lakeshore since then.  The team's primary focus has been structure protection.

The strategy to protect the community of Stehekin has been to shield the buildings and push the fire past the area.

A day shift of a couple hundred firefighters and a night crew of 50 are providing 24 coverage.  A fresh crew of reinforcements were on board Lake Chelan Boat Company's Lady Liberty on the trip to Stehekin with the media folks headed uplake.  A camp for firefighters has been established at Holden Village in Lucerne.

The terrain remains generally too steep for hand crews to work safely so a new strategy was deployed Saturday.

In addition to Super scooper aircraft and the smaller Fire Bosses, a Sky Crane helicopter was ordered for Saturday.  The helicopter is capable of dropping several thousand gallons of water.  Fillmore said a Mobile Retardant  Base has been established near Mazama and the Sky Crane was used to deliver targeted retardant drops where fixed-wing aircraft can't safely operate.  A retardant bomber also flew the fire Saturday and about 23,000 gallons of retardant was dumped on the fire's western flank.