Yakima County Burbank Fire Has Already Burned Over 7000 Acres

The smoke and the haze in the air over the Tri-Cities are coming from several different wildfires. A fire in Asotin County has already burned 26,000 acres and is about 25% contained and a new fire located in Yakima County has caused 7000 acres worth of damage.

The Burbank Fire, located west of South Badger Pocket Road in Yakima County and east of I-82 is spreading in a south/southwest direction and it's already scorched 7000 acres

According to the Yakima County Emergency Management, here are the details of the fire:

Fireline resources continue to work the fire today. Current resources on the fire are three hand crews, three engines, one tender, and two dozers. More hand crews, engines, tenders, and dozers are on order. Air Attack and two helicopters are engaged in the incident: one helicopter is a US Army Reserves Aviation Battalion performing bucket operations and sourcing water from dipsites within the training center. The other is a helicopter attached to the Washington State Department of Natural Resources (WA DNR).

The fire started at approximately 4:30 p.m. by I-82 milepost 18 in the Burbank Creek area on Saturday, July 10th. Kittitas Valley Fire & Rescue (KVFR) firefighters were first on the scene, followed shortly at 4:40 p.m. by the Yakima Training Center Fire Department (YTC FD), which was requested by Kittitas County for mutual aid. At 5:40 p.m., driven by high wind speeds, dry weather conditions, and quickly igniting sage and grass fuels, the fire spread eastward into the Yakima Training Center.

Once the fire spread to the training center, it threatened several structures, which fire resources successfully protected. By 8:30 pm, the fire had expanded to approximately 5,000 acres and was moving through the canyon between Yakima and Umtanum Ridges. Firefighters from YTC FD, KVFR, Selah, Yakima, and the BLM, along with WA DNR air assets and YTC dozer crews, worked diligently through the afternoon and night to protect structures and mitigate the spread of the fire.

The cause is unknown and a fire investigator has been ordered to the fire. The fire started adjacent to I-82, not from within the training center. Due to a red flag warning (hot, dry, and windy weather conditions which mark a high potential for fire activity), no training was taking place in the Yakima Training Center when the fire ignited.

Yakima Valley Emergency Management is issuing information on evacuations.

The fire right now is 50% contained and no structures have been lost so far. You can get more details on the fire here.

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