Progress reported on Little Giant Fire; north shore fire shows no life

Night firefighting operations near Maverick Saddle, Aug. 22. Photo courtesy: Little Giant Fire Incident Command.

New information on the Little Giant and Sisi wild land fires burning near Lake Chelan was shared by fire managers during an on-line presentation Monday night.

An overhead map shows progress on firefighters building wide black containment lines around the 147,537 acre Little Giant Fire perimeter.

"It's going to take some weather, but I think you'll see a lot more containment on this fire," said Operations Fire Chief Frank Alves as he described what was shared on the latest mapping of the fire. "We can expect to see black line (firefighter created containment barriers). We've got black line to add tonight, to the northeast side of the fire."

Chief Alves says the north shore segment of the fire, in steep rocky terrain, west of Manson, is not showing any heat and should be declared fully contained soon.

Firefighters "are focusing on indirect tactics," in a very remote location on the Sisi fire burning west of Stehekin, Alves added. "trying to figure out how many firefighters we can get in here and how do we support those firefighters once they are in there. So right now, point protection in the Stehekin Valley."

"Temperatures are going to warm up over the next couple of days," said meteorologist Nick Nausler. "RH (relative humidity) is going to drop. Winds will start to increase out of the south, southeast , but will increase much more beginning on Wednesday. On Wednesday we have a cold front coming through, we'll probably see stronger wind behind the front, and those winds will stay strong overnight and continue into Thursday."

In the span of a month, firefighting costs for 20 wildfires burning across Washington State have totaled $207 million, according to data from the state’s Department of Natural Resources (DNR).

DNR reports the number is telling with those 20 fires, some of which are still burning, costing more than two-thirds of what DNR spent over the last state fiscal year battling wildfires.

More than 770,000 acres across Washington have burned in 2026 alone. That’s the third-highest acreage on record.

In the last fiscal year, which ended June 30, the Department of Natural Resources spent more than ever on wildfires at an estimated $304.8 million. This surpassed what the state budgeted by nearly $18 million.