Wildfire Sears 70,300 Acres; Residents Flee -- Chelan, Leavenworth Threatened; Outsiders Asked To Stay Out Of Area

AS A HUGE FIRE continues to rage in Central Washington, hundreds of people have evacuated from around Entiat and Lake Chelan, and authorities are asking vacationers from elsewhere to stay away from the resort area.

LAKE CHELAN, Chelan County - Firefighters dramatically increased their estimate of the size of a forest fire consuming dry hills near Entiat and Chelan today, and braced for the possibility that 35-mph winds could threaten dozens of homes along Lake Chelan.

High-altitude infrared images showed the Tyee Creek fire had increased to 70,300 acres, compared to 54,000 acres yesterday, said Paul Hart of the U.S. Forest Service.

Swift winds the past few days caused the Tyee Creek fire to swell, destroying 15 homes and 75 outbuildings in the Entiat River valley southwest of Chelan. More than 1,800 firefighters from all over the nation were on the lines.

People along the south shore of Lake Chelan were preparing to evacuate the area today and residents of other nearby areas have been told to be ready to leave.

To the west, residents of Leavenworth also were warned to be ready to evacuate. Leavenworth is threatened by the Hatchery Creek fire, which yesterday jumped Highway 2 and the Wenatchee River to come within 3 miles of the town.

The Chelan County sheriff's office began warning residents of the town of Peshastin and the Icicle and Eagle Creek drainages near Leavenworth to prepare to evacuate. Leavenworth city employees were going door to door, making sure residents were aware of the earlier evacuation warning.

The Tyee fire that threatens the south shore of Lake Chelan has raged since being ignited by lightning Sunday.

Diminishing winds and a rise in humidity helped firefighters slow its growth. But the forecast for late today was for 35-mph winds from the west, high temperatures and low humidity.

Chelan County Sheriff Dan Breda today had one word of advice for Puget Sound residents planning to head to Lake Chelan or other Chelan County areas this weekend: don't.

Lake Chelan and Lake Wenatchee State Parks will be closed all weekend; much of Lake Chelan's south shore is already evacuated, other areas are on alert for possible evacuation, and even areas not likely to be evacuated have thick smoke in the air that can be hazardous to the elderly, small children and people with respiratory problems, he said.

A total of 190 firetrucks from all over the state are being used to fight the fire. A Forest Service spokesman said many homes were saved because "we had so many fire engines we could put one at each home."

The Tyee blaze is the largest of dozens of wildfires that have blackened some 82,000 acres in Central and Eastern Washington. There have been no serious injuries.

State and federal forest managers in Oregon and Washington yesterday asked for help from the military to fight wildfires.

Joining the battle will be one National Guard battalion from Yakima and two battalions of Marines from Camp Pendleton, Calif., plus four aircraft from Fairchild Air Force Base near Spokane. They are equipped to drop foam, which authorities said is particularly effective against grass fires and would be used today, weather permitting.

A temperature inversion kept temperatures down and prevented the fire from spreading last night, but it also held the smoke close to the ground in many areas, blocking the vision of pilots and preventing air attacks on the blaze.

While fire crews do their best to contain the blaze, hundreds of families live in temporary quarters with their fingers crossed.

Maryanne Crossman, her mother, her daughter and her granddaughter have been living in a tent and a trailer the last three nights.

Two picnic tables were crowded with four cages of turtle doves and quails, and an assortment including a plastic kitchen basin, jeans and pots.

Monday night, firefighters told her she had 30 minutes to get out of her house on Tyee Ridge, above the Entiat River. Her two daughters and their four children threw whatever they could into three cars and a boat.

"Everybody grabbed and took out whatever they thought was valuable. We left with an odd assortment of stuff. We had birds. Somebody grabbed a five-gallon bucket of snap beans we just picked. Someone else pulled all the pictures down off the walls. My grandchildren grabbed everything that looked old, like these kerosene lanterns I use when the power goes out." They let loose her menagerie of chickens, dogs and a goat.

She was safe, but worried about her house - and about the land.

"To be honest, I'm afraid of going back and seeing those black hills," she said, looking off with teary eyes.

But as she sat at a picnic table in the shade, her daughter, Tammy Donaghue, walked up and said she heard from firefighters her house was still standing and the animals were all safe.

The wind had blown the fire down the mountain.

"Thank the Lord, we're OK," Crossman said. Not quite yet, her daughter said. The winds could blow the fire back. But things were looking good for the first time in days.

Forest fires are not unusual in the Entiat Valley, where every summer, numerous small blazes are ignited by lightning in the dry vegetation, and the steep terrain makes the fires difficult to fight.

In the area's largest fire on record, a lightning storm in August 1970 blackened 122,000 acres in the Entiat and Chelan districts.

More recently, a 1988 fire believed started by a campfire charred 52,000 acres in the Entiat Valley and destroyed several homes. Two helicopter crewmen were killed when their aircraft crashed while carrying buckets of water to drop on the blaze.

Information from Seattle Times staff reporters Jack Broom and Dee Norton and from The Associated Press is included in this report.