VANTAGE, Wash. — Fire crews continued battling the Vantage Highway Fire Wednesday amid Red Flag Warning-conditions.
A Red Flag Warning means high temperatures are combined with low humidity and stronger winds, meaning there's an increased risk of fire danger.
Hot, dry and windy weather combined with the need to traverse off-road areas meant a heavy workload for firefighters who have been working the scene since Aug. 1.
"Now we're getting into areas of the fire that are difficult to access, we don't have road access (to) all of the sections of the fire we need to reach to stop its path," said Southeast Washington Interagency Incident Management Team (SE WA IMT) Public Information Officer Grace DeBusschere. "So firefighters are hiking in, boating on the Columbia and using aircraft to fight the fire."
SE WA IMT says evacuation orders for the nearby town of Vantage have been lifted. One cabin and three other structures were burned, but no residential buildings are currently thought to be threatened.
Wednesday, authorities said the fire had burned down into the Columbia River gorge on the Kittitas County side with winds carrying smoke across the river and up into Grant County.
Wednesday, Washington Department of Natural Resources (DNR) said it had recorded 45 fire starts since July 27, as high temperatures- in some areas, into the hundreds- converged with a high amount of fuel that grew over the wet spring and dried out this summer.
The DNR says most fires are human-caused -- though that includes accidents and incidents such as traffic crashes or chains dragging on a road.
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