A sigh of relief for Stehekin as evacuation advisory will be reduced Thursday night

Chelan County Emergency Management Director, Sheriff's Sgt. Jason Reinfeld. joins virtual Pioneer Fire meeting, August 21.

An evacuation advisory for the village of Stehekin is scheduled to be downgraded at 6:00 p.m., Thursday, August 22.

Chelan County Emergency Management Director, Sheriff's Sgt. Jason Reinfeld said during a virtual fire update Wednesday night, "From Adams Point to High Bridge, the Stehekin Valley will be at a Level One evacuation. This is due to the reduced (fire) threat in the area."

"Keep in mind, we're talking about the residential area of the landing. All of that's at a (level) one but there still could be some trail closures and that will be at the discretion of the National Park Service," said Reinfeld.

Pioneer firefighters have made good progress in the past few days, aided by moderate weather conditions, resulting in very little fire growth.

"The focus in recent days has been to hold the fire below the check line that was put in by retardant on a ridge above Stehekin. Those efforts over the last several days had relied largely on aviation resources with water drops to cool hot spots," Incident Command Public Information Officer Lorena Wisehart said.

Wisehart added that moderating weather conditions on the fire allowed for a change in strategy. "We were able to put a couple of firefighters on that ridge top. We used a short haul technique to lift two firefighters into that area that cut out a heli spot landing, and insert a short crew of firefighters to check those areas of hot spots along that retardant ridge and really further secure that line," she added.

Using a short haul technique two firefighters are lifted onto a 4,000 foot ridge between the Boulder Creek and Rainbow Creek drainages to cut out a helicopter landing. The landing may be used to place more firefighters in the area.

Photo courtesy: Derek Sams, Pioneer Fire Division Supervisor, and Matt Fox, Remote Emergency Medical Responder.