Management Team Says Twentyfive Mile Fire Will Be Around For Awhile, But Progress is Being Made

Crews continue to make progress in battling the Twentyfive Mile Fire at Lake Chelan.

The fire actually has a larger footprint after expanding over the weekend, but is not a major threat to homes and buildings.

Cody Robach with the fire management team says crews have been successful in keeping the fire away from populated areas near the lakeshore.

"Those portions of the line now are currently in a patrol and mop up," said Robach. "So that's really good news for limiting the ability of the fire to spread downslope towards Lake Chelan with a lot of homes and other values down along the south shore."

Robach says a lot of work still needs to be done, but changing weather and eventual snowfall will bring an end to the fire.

Paul Willard with the Okanogan Wenatchee National Forest is similarly optimistic, but also thinks it's going to take more time before the fire is fully contained.

"We've got a little more season ahead of us, said Willard. "There's a lot of uncontained fire on the landscape, so this fire is probably going to be around in our backyard for awhile. But things are going pretty well at this time."

Willard says roads in the area are being repaired after being damaged by heavy fire traffic during the 22 days the fire has been burning.

The Twentyfive Mile Fire is burning almost 17,200 acres and is 40 percent contained as of Monday morning. It's being managed by one of 16 high level Type 1 teams that are currently battling fires across the country. The team included 451 personnel.

Investigators are still trying to determine how the fire started.

To date, it's destroyed one home. More than 770 homes and buildings remain at a low level of risk.