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FAST-MOVING FIRE -- Within two hours of the start of the Highway 8 Complex Fire, helicopters were on the scene battling the blaze.
At a little after noon on Thursday, Aug. 26, a fast-moving wildfire pushed by high winds rolled through tinder-dry vegetation north of Lyle and quickly became dangerous.
Deputies with the Klickitat County Sheriff's Office went house to house to advise residents of the need to evacuate. People living in approximately 100 homes in the area were asked to be ready to leave at "a moment's notice," with those in another 40 residences asked to evacuate immediately due to the extreme danger.
At one point on Thursday, approximately 50 houses were considered to be at risk of burning in the blaze. To accommodate potential evacuees, a Red Cross shelter was opened at the Lyle Lions Community Center on State Route 14.
According to a witness, the fire -- which started on Old Highway 8 about a mile north of Lyle -- was sparked by downed power lines.
The fire was officially known as the "Highway 8 Complex Fire." By the time it was mostly contained on Tuesday morning, the fire had covered more than 2,000 acres and forced the evacuation of numerous homes in the path of the northward-moving flames.
No injuries were reported and no homes were lost, but the fire took a heavy toll on the property of Lyle resident Eugene Smith. Smith's barn -- which was packed with winter feedstock for his cattle -- was destroyed in the blaze, along with a tractor and a couple of his outbuildings. Smith's home was spared.
Air tankers and as many as five helicopters were actively fighting the fire on Friday and through the weekend, but by Monday the air support was no longer needed. At the peak of the firefighting activity, more than 700 firefighters were assisting in battling the blaze, and a tent city was set up at Bingen Point to accommodate firefighting crews.
In a press briefing at Bingen Point on Friday afternoon, Nathan Rabe, the deputy incident commander for the Highway 8 fire, reported that the fire was spreading.
"It's at 1,200 acres and growing," Rabe explained. "There are 500 people based here at Bingen Point, and some resources are still coming in. The fire is growing to the north."
Rabe added that one of the primary missions for the team of firefighters was to try to keep the fire bottled up.
"We're hoping to keep the fire on the west side of the Klickitat River," Rabe said.
Those who were ordered to evacuate were on the west side of the river, with those on the east side advised to be prepared to get out quickly if the fire jumped across the river.
"We're ordering people out, but we always have people who want to stay behind," Rabe pointed out.
Personnel on hand to help in the effort included the Lyle Fire District and several neighboring fire districts, as well as the U.S. Forest Service, the Washington Department of Natural Resources, the Bureau of Land Management, and the Bureau of Indian Affairs.
State Route 142, between milepost 0 to milepost 10, was closed on Friday due to the danger, as were parts of Fisher Hill Road and Canyon Road. Also, several miles of the Klickitat River were closed to recreationalists during the incident.
On Monday, cooler temperatures and an overnight sprinkle of rain helped firefighters contain the fire, and the crisis appeared to be winding down. By Monday afternoon, the Washington State Fire Services Resource Mobilization assistance was scaled down, and firefighting strike teams demobilized and headed back to their home jurisdictions.
Although no official cause of the fire has yet been reported, the fire apparently started when the trunk of a rotten tree snapped and fell, hitting power lines and setting off a fire that quickly spread in high winds.
Adrian Bradford, who works for Cor Winery in Lyle, said he witnessed the start of the fire.
"I was across the road, and I heard a tremendous cracking sound," Bradford said. "I looked up and saw a tree falling down. It hit the power lines and pulled the pole down, and sparks started flying all over. The power pole was snapped right in half. Then the transformer exploded and huge flames shot up."
Bradford described the winds in the area that day as an "incredible force."
"Within three minutes, it was already out of control," he added. "The whole thing happened so fast."
Bradford and other employees at Cor Winery grabbed shovels and worked to keep the flames from reaching the winery facilities.
"We took shovels to keep the fire on one side of the road," he explained. "We were lucky the fire didn't come across our driveway."
