Friday was perhaps the busiest day Chelan Fire and Rescue had seen in some time, with not one, but two fully involved structure fires within six hours that required help from neighboring fire departments. The first one broke out at a construction site Friday morning around 10, on Lenore Drive near State Route 150. Captain Ty Zacker describes what they were faced with when they showed up:
The Chelan crews were helped in their efforts by crews from Manson and Orondo, along with water tenders because the fire was burning hot and threatening a neighboring structure because of strong winds:
Crews were able to contain the fire within about 90 minutes, but it continued to smolder for much of the day. Crews were just getting things back to normal when they were called to the second fire, this one in east Chelan, a mobile home with an addition tacked on, the address on it depends on who you talk to, but let's just say at the intersection of Columbia View Road and Willmorth Drive. Zacker says they were called out around 4 p.m.:
Manson Fire crews responded to that fire as well, and water tenders responded to that too because there were no fire hydrants available. Crews stayed at that fire through the evening, with the last engine leaving the scene around midnight. There were no human injuries at either fire; there were three dogs at the east Chelan fire, we know that two of the dogs are OK. As for a cause of the fires, they are unknown, the county fire marshal was expected to return during the weekend to continue the investigation of the east Chelan fire.