OROVILLE, Wash. — Evacuations on the US side of the Eagle Bluff fire were reduced following a weekend of high winds and fast-moving flames.
The latest safety information on the fire can be found here.
Officials say the fire has grown to around 10,000 acres with no containment and the cause is still under investigation.
Oroville resident Dave Taber says word traveled quickly that the fire had started. Driving to check on homes and properties, he saw smoke billowing and people jumping in to help. He says people, planes, helicopters and bulldozers were all visibly deployed to try to keep residents, structures and wildlife safe wherever possible.
"You could see firefighters and the sheriff's department evacuating people, and they were ripping around trying to get everyone out of there, cause it moved quicker than anyone thought," Taber said.
Taber says what's left behind is heart-wrenching, though it could have been even worse.
"It's just sad to see how your backyard changes so quickly, it literally looks devastating," Taber said. "We saw a doe and her fawn, she was burned from her neck up, you can see her hair singed, tongue hanging out, she looked lost, it's sad to see what it's done to the surrounding area, the wildlife, but fortunately the community and all the first responders from surrounding areas- everyone pulled together and they did a phenomenal job. The air support was amazing, they really did do a good job."
Debbie Smith echoed the importance of the community pulling together during fires like this one. She says she was able to watch the fire grow over the lake from her home.
"We were sitting in the backyard right by the lake and I was actually facing in a Southern direction and I saw a cloud kind of appear all of a sudden and I went, oh no, that's not a cloud, that's not gonna be good," Smith said. "So we watched it pretty much from its origin creep up towards the north and the winds were coming from the south so it moved along at a pretty good clip."
Smith says every time it hit a tree, they'd see a big flare-up and ash fell even on her side of the lake.
"You could actually feel the heat from across the lake and we could hear the roar of the fire at one point too as it hit the bigger clumps of trees and such," Smith said.
It comes as Washington heads toward traditional peak fire season, Washington Department of Natural Resources (WADNR) Wildland Fire Meteorologist Matthew Dehr said.
"We're really entering what is our traditional peak of fire season and some of those fires out there- Eagle Bluff fire, the 15-acre fire near Diablo Lake are just showing us- these fuels are ready to burn," Dehr said.
WADNR says in western Washington, marine air at night has brought relative humidity high, tamping down fire danger west of the cascades. Dehr says conditions could heat up heading into the weekend, with a 90-degree day possible. Still, with relative humidity, a big rapid fire spread is more unlikely than it is on the east side of the state.
"Some bad news and some good news...bad news is, it's still going to be very very dry east of the cascades for the next five days," Dehr said. "Relative humidity's down in the single digits really helping those fuels stay dry, stay ready to burn, but winds are gonna back off a little bit for the beginning of the week."
Lightning is also possible heading into the weekend.