Kicking wildfire season off with a blaze near Lake Chelan

Washington is kicking off the summer fire season with a 600 acre blaze north of Wenatchee, near Lake Chelan.

“There is one home that was evacuated, and does remain evacuated, but there have been no structures lost,” says Fire Information Officer Nancy Jones.

The fire, which started July 5 about eight miles north of the town of Entiat, is already 75 percent contained. Fire managers are hoping for full containment sometime tonight.

Over 160 fire personnel, three engines and two helicopters are assigned to the blaze that is burning in hilly terrain. More resources are on standby.

Even if the fire is contained tonight, Jones says dozens of firefighters will remain on the fire lines.

“They’ll continue to improve the lines around the fire and do mop-up operations around the perimeter of the fire lines, and then continue to monitor it for several days to possibly several weeks to make sure it stays inside those lines,” says Jones.

Boat access near the helicopter dipping site on the Columbia River is restricted. Drivers on Highway 97A also need to be aware their travel might be interrupted if the firefighter aircraft needs access to the water.

Despite the current fire, experts say this wildfire season should be relatively mild for Washington State. With the wet conditions sticking around through early summer, the Northwest Inter-Agency Coordination Center says our fire season will probably peak in late August.

Conditions are similar to what Eastern Washington saw last year.

A 3,000 acre fire near Goldendale destroyed 24 homes and dozens of outbuildings last summer. In all, 2011 saw 919 wildfires in Washington. 821 of those were caused by people while 98 were caused by lighting.

Nearly 20,000 acres were affected, one of the lowest total numbers of acres burnt in a year since the 1990s.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.