The Cold Creek fire has grown substantially since it started on Monday and it is expected to get worse with high wind speeds projected over the weekend, according to U.S. Forest Service spokesperson Heather Appelhof.
Additionally, because of the adverse weather the U.S. Forest Services expects to transition from a type 3 incident team that is fighting the fire, which is currently the Southeast Washington Interagency Incident Management Team, to a type 2 incident team within the next 48 hours.
Appelhof explained the type of incident team that responds is based on the complexity of the fire.
“It will come with more resources and a team that is prepared to handle a higher complexity of fire,” Appelhof said.
The fire has currently burned 400 acres with only 5 percent of it contained and 244 fire personnel working to contain it, according to Inciweb, a national database for incident information.
However, the good news is the threat the fire poses to households and structures that are currently under a level 2 “be set” evacuation notice, has not changed, Appelhof said.
No structures have been affected by the fire, as of Friday.
But as the wind and rain picks up this weekend, which will help clear smoke, it will not necessarily help with the fire.
“The winds will predominantly be coming from the west so we are anticipating our eastern perimeter will be stressed a bit on the containment lines,” Appelhof said.
Appelhof added that the rainfall that is anticipated isn’t supposed to be a wetting rain, the kind that is favorable in a wildfire. Appelhof said there is only a small chance that the rainfall over the weekend is a wetting rain.
On Thursday, firefighters worked throughout the day trying to bolster containment lines around the perimeter while focusing on the east and west flanks of the fire on the south side of U.S. Highway 12, according to Inciweb.
The fire is located on both the north and south side of Highway 12 but a majority of the fire is located on the south side, according to Inciweb.
Highway 12 remains closed from milepost 138 to milepost 183.
For more information on the Cold Creek fire and other fires around the West Coast, visit Inciweb.nwcg.org.
