Pioneer Fire Continues to Expand, Inch Closer to Stehekin
Another round of updates has emerged regarding the Pioneer Fire, to which there is seemingly no end in sight.
On June 8, the Pioneer Fire got underway in the Lake Chelan-Sawtooth Wilderness Area, about 31 miles northwest of Chelan. The fire has since ballooned to 23,529 acres.
The Pioneer Fire is believed to have been human-triggered, but details remain sketchy. The exact cause is under investigation.
Scores of personnel - 776, to be precise - are actively working to contain the blaze. It is now 14% contained.
Air support, including nine helicopters, has been deployed.
"We've been running into issues with aviation," says fire information spokeswoman Heather Appelhof. "With all this smoke that's been moving into the area, the visibility at times makes it hard for the pilots to do their job safely."
"And some of the smoke is not even from our fire! There's actually smoke coming into our area from Oregon as well."
The geography of the fire has started to shift too. Currently the Pioneer Fire is "most active" near Hunts Creek, Appelhof says.
Furthermore, she says, the fire has "slowly been moving toward Stehekin." Consequently Stehekin is under a Level 1 evacuation order.
A community meeting is scheduled for Wednesday night at Manson High School. People are welcome to attend remotely, but Thursday night's follow-up meeting - at Stehekin's Golden West Visitor Center - is in-person only.
What follows was gleaned from the Pioneer Fire webpage.
Safety and Closures: The Okanogan-Wenatchee National Forest has a closure order in place for much of the fire area. Details and maps are available at: https://bit.ly/PioneerClosure. There is a Temporary Flight Restriction (TFR) in place over the fire: https://tfr.faa.gov/save_pages/detail_4_6779.html. Drone activity is prohibited under the TFR, as helicopters cannot fly with unauthorized drones present.
Evacuations: The Chelan County Sheriff extended the level 3 evacuation up lake to Hazard Creek along Lake Chelan, now encompassing Safety Harbor to Hazard Creek. Level 1, 2 and 3 evacuation levels remain in effect around the Pioneer Fire. Please visit https://t.ly/QoH9w for more information.
Weather and Smoke: A Red Flag Warning is in effect today for dry thunderstorms and abundant lightning, and a heat advisory remains in effect. The air quality outlook can be found at: https://bit.ly/PioneerFireSmoke. Learn more about smoke at http://wasmoke.blogspot.com/. The fire marshal issued fire danger ratings and restrictions: https://t.ly/WLBds.
"Some of those [thunderstorm] clouds are starting to materialize," Appelhof says. "When we do get those dry thunderstorms, we often get the downward, erratic, gusty winds. And that can cause the fire to get active."
"All of our firefighters are being extra vigilant. We have several lookouts posted that are taking hourly weather observations - monitoring any thunder cells that do start to develop. They're also monitoring fire behavior."
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Gallery Credit: Kelso