Sixth crew arrives to fight WA’s Pioneer Fire, tiny town still threatened
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The small, remote town of Stehekin is hard to get to. It’s accessible only by a two-hour ferry ride from Chelan, by boat, floatplane or on foot. Right now, the tiny town is just feet away from the largest wildfire burning in Washington state: the Pioneer Fire. The fire has grown to nearly 40,000 acres and is less than 20% contained.
“We are keeping the fire out of the community, which ourselves and the teams before us have been very successful with,” said Stephen Fillmore, the deputy incident commander with California Interagency Incident Management Team 15.
At 6 a.m. Friday the Northwest Incident Management Team 3 took command of the Pioneer, Easy and Flat Creek Fires. This will be the sixth crew that has come in to fight the Pioneer Fire. The California team arrived two weeks ago and the fire has come as close as 20 to 100 feet from Stehekin. Fire crews said it is posing a threat to 470 residential and commercial properties. No structures have burned.
“I think the last team set us up for success by following them in their trend and what they have done. Now we’re just adding on to that,” said Sean Quezada, the Public Information Officer from the California team.
The Pioneer Fire is currently burning in the Cascades. The steep and rocky slopes have posed significant challenges for crews to attack the fire.
“It’s rocky, there’s dead trees and it’s just extremely dangerous to put firefighters directly on those slopes, so what we’ve been doing instead is using a lot of aircraft,” said Fillmore
The management teams use “scooper airplanes,” and sky cranes, which are helicopters that can carry about 1,600 gallons of water. Crews hope that the aircraft can help gain a foothold on the fire and slow its growth. Helicopters are dropping water and retardant to cool hotspots. It is meant to strengthen a barrier to prevent the fire from spreading.
Thunderstorms have also posed a threat and shut down boat operations. The storms also caused trees to fall, which can create unexpected challenges, according to the fire management team.
On Thursday, Pacific Northwest Incident Management Team 3 shadowed California Interagency Incident Management Team 15 to take command of the Pioneer Fire and neighboring fires, Easy and Flat Creek Fires. More than 600 people are working to fight the fire.
Level 3 evacuations, which mean everyone must evacuate immediately, remain in place for the Stehekin Valley and the north end of Lake Chelan. Some residents have stayed and are contracted with the management teams to supply food, housing and transportation for firefighting crews.
Reneé Diaz may be contacted at diaz@wenatcheeworld.com. Collaborative reporting by The Wenatchee World, NWPB and Murrow College of Communication Newsroom Fellowship.
