The brush and grass fires have threatened structures, but evacuations have been canceled as crews worked to control the blazes.
Threat levels from wildfires in Central Washington were downgraded overnight, from a level-three evacuation status to a level one, authorities said.
This status means residents in Douglas, Chelan and Grant counties no longer need to evacuate or be ready on a moment’s notice to flee their homes. But residents do need to keep an eye on the status of nearby fires.
Local, state and federal agencies continued to work Thursday night to contain the fires. Authorities initially thought the Sutherland Canyon and the Straight Hollow fires — burning north of Quincy — had grown together, said Nick Mickel, an information officer for the fires’ incident-management team. It was clear Friday they remain separate, he said.
He said that as of Friday morning, the Sutherland Canyon fire has burned more than 29,400 acres and is 50 percent contained. Straight Hollow has burned about 8,458 acres with about 75 percent containment.
The fires aren’t at the point where local efforts can handle them alone, Mickel said. More containment is needed, and there is a threat of wind on Saturday that state and federal units will keep their eyes on.
“It looks pretty quiet right now,” Mickel said. “But we don’t want to let our guards down.”
Just to the west in Chelan County, the Spartan fire has burned about 8,730 acres, and has been contained by 81 percent. Mickel said there are plans to hand the Spartan fire over to local resources Saturday morning.
Authorities handling the South Wenas fire burning in Yakima County also have plans to turn aid back to local efforts, said Tracy Baker, a fire-information officer. An overnight aerial survey showed that the fire was 80 percent contained and has burned 2,846 acres, she said.
Baker said at the height of the fire, there were 212 personnel working on it, and crews are now down to “below half that,” she said.
The Northwest Interagency Coordination Center is posting regular updates about the size and status of the fires.