Chelan County officials call on Forest Service to take quick action on wildfires

It took two and a half months last summer for the Pioneer Fire, burning on the north shore of Lake Chelan, to be declared contained. Now there's word that the U.S. Forest Service (USFS) predicts the Pomas Fire in the Glalcier Peaks Wilderness, northwest of Entiat, may be permitted to burn itself out, which may take all summer,

"We really don't expect to see the fire grow by a large amount in the weeks ahead, but it's going to be one of those deals where it's just going to burn all summer as it consumes all the fuels it has available in the area that we can't get to.," USFS Public Information Officer Ben Shearer told reporters.

Chelan County Commissioners have spoken out about the plan to allow the fire to continue burning.

"I don't want to make any allegations but it almost seems like these fires are allowed to burn because it's a convenient opportunity to do stewardship," said Chelan County Commissioner Kevin Overbay at the weekly commission meeting on Monday. "The downside to that is not only does it impact our economy but it also impacts the health and welfare in regards to air quality. The Forest Service needs to be doing stewardship on the land outside of fire season, but they also need to manage fires and put the fires out."

"It does seem suspicious to me that they're kinda leveraging the wildfires to do forest treatment," Commissioner Brad Hawkins said. "Other than economic and air quality, there's a lot of other collateral impacts with insurance."

The commissioners have shared their concerns with the congressional delegation that represents the area.