Suburban Chelan wildfire temporarily closes highways, threatens power lines

The closest yet to an urban area, a grass fire erupts in east Chelan Sunday along Highway 97A, temporarily closing both that highway and Highway 97.

The 35-40 acre fire burned east of the dump transfer station and WalMart not far beyond that.

Chelan Fire Chief Brandon Asher talked with KOZI from the fire scene following a three hour firefight, when the fire surrendered to a mutual aid attack of local firefighters.

"Didn't lose any primary structures, no injuries," said the fire chief. "Another really good unified command and getting another good air show; we had the scoopers, three helicopters, a dozer. Kind of all around good initial attack."

Chief Asher reflected on this fire, the burn just north of the Chelan Golf Course last week, and fears the worst is yet to come.

"We've had a lot of fires this year, and a lot of these fires were really fairly early in the fuel dry out process," Asher said. "We've just now getting into more of the critical fuel moistures, where fires are really gonna be explosive."

The chief asks everyone to be extra careful, "Be careful with what they're doing. We don't want this (fire starts) to be an every three or four day occurrence all summer like it has been so far."