Wildfire on Konnowac Pass a Little Too Close for Comfort [VIDEO]

Around 7:00 p.m. last night (Aug. 3), I went outside to check on my sprinklers when I noticed a ton of smoke in the air. Looking to the south of my home in Moxee, I noticed that Rattlesnake Ridge was on fire! Helicopters were already circling the sky dumping water to douse the flames. I whipped out my POS phone and tried to capture it. As it turns out, the fire was about 500 acres and was burning along Konnowac Pass. Since my house is just off of Faucher Road in East Valley, it was a bit too close for comfort!

According to reports, the fire claimed over 1,000 acres and between 75 to 100 firefighters were on the scene. A number of homes near by had to be evacuated.

KATS loyal listeners Doug and Krysta Wilske live just over the hill from the epicenter of the blaze. When I reached out to them via Facebook, Krysta said, "Always good to get the heart racing! We were ready to go in five minutes. It's still pretty hazy but not too bad. Even though we were a few miles away it was still scary as I have seen fire travel that fast first-hand in a matter of minutes. We've dealt with this four times now and still have melted sprinklers in the back yard from when It got within 25 feet of the house -- big enough for the water truck and three extremely brave fire fighters to get in."

Forbes Mercy, owner of Washington Broadband, was watching the blaze via on of his tower cameras.

 Moxee resident Sue Sauve has a relative that used to live in this house. She was thankful they no longer resided there!

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