Smoke from wildfire expected to reach Seattle by week’s end

Signs of the massive fire near Cle Elum are expected to reach Seattle by the end of the week.

Ted Buehner with the National Weather Service says an offshore flow will bring smoke down from the mountains.

“Some of our visibility may not be all that great, kind of a smoky look to the sky,” says Buehner.

He says it could also affect people with respiratory issues.

High winds and high temps are making it difficult for firefighters near Ellensburg to battle a raging wildfire that’s still only 10 percent contained.

But Buehner says there could be a break in those conditions on Wednesday.

“Wednesday is their real good attack day when the winds are down and the temperatures are not getting into extreme,” says Buehner.

Rex Reed, Incident Commander for the Wildfire, says they’re looking to take advantage of the improvement in conditions on Wednesday. He says it’s also important to get things under control by the weekend.

“As we get into the weekend the Northwest is expecting a pretty major lightning event so we’re working very diligently to try to get as much containment of this fire before we get there.”