New Firefighting Team Taking Over Management of Twentyfive Mile at Lake Chelan

A new team of firefighters is taking over management of the Twentyfive Mile fire at Lake Chelan Wednesday morning.

The outgoing team says it's made good progress in securing containment lines of the fire, which is burning more than 21,000 acres.

Outgoing team Commander Randy Johnson says the fire's threat to populated areas continues to dwindle.

"Everything is looking good," said Johnson. "(We've been) in there with some IR, Infrared imaging instruments just to check some of that line that we've had black and cold for a number of days. Nothing was found that was not expected. So that's all looking good."

Chelan County Emergency Management announced Monday that all evacuation notices for the fire had been lifted, while praising the efforts of firefighters.

Johnson said about 10 miles of hose his team had laid out to protect homes and structures has now been picked up.

He also says the incoming team is being made aware of conditions surrounding the fire.

"They've been briefed to the community environment," said Johnson. "They've been briefed to the importance of maintaining that protection for the community, and they're fully engaged to those mitigations as well, and (I'm) confident they'll do a good job as they roll in here."

The outgoing team (Pacific Northwest Team 3) is among 16 Type 1 firefighting units across the country that are the highest level of (IMT) - Incident Management Teams. The incoming group is known as Southwest Team 3.

More than 300 personnel have been working the Twentyfive Mile Fire lately.

There’s been internal burning of dead timber and snags, which firefighters say will continue as long as the fire lasts. The fire is 50 percent contained as of Wednesday morning.